Constant current Power Transmission Line based power delivery network for single-ended signaling with reduced simultaneous switching noise

Due to the increasing operating frequency and power density, more current is being drawn from the power delivery network (PDN). For off-chip signaling, the drawn current flows through the signal transmission line outside the chip, and induces a return current on the reference plane. The power planes cause return path discontinuity (RPD), which induces power noise and coupling between the signal distribution network and the PDN. In this paper, a transmission line structure is proposed to replace the power plane and convey power supply from the voltage source to each integrated circuit (IC), which is called as Power Transmission Line (PTL). In this paper, proof of concept for the Constant Current Power Transmission Line (CCPTL) based single-ended signaling scheme is presented. The efficacy of using PTL is verified by measurement results.