Fast multipole method for time domain PEEC analysis

High-speed electronic circuits are becoming more and more important in modern communication systems, thus leading to an increasing interest in printed circuit boards, interconnect, and packaging. Nowadays, full-wave numerical methods are widely used in order to investigate both signal integrity and electromagnetic compatibility issues arising in PCBs design. When broadband information is desired and transient effects dominate, it is more efficient using time domain numerical techniques, which may scale better than corresponding frequency-domain methods. This paper presents the derivation of the time domain partial element equivalent circuit (PEEC) method enhanced by the three-dimensional (3D) fast multipole method (FMM). It is shown that combining the full-wave time domain PEEC method with the FMM allows performing the analysis of electrically large electronic systems, which reduces both memory and CPU-time requirements. Several examples are presented confirming the capability of the proposed approach to provide a significant reduction of the computational complexity associated with the transient analysis of large systems.