DEPACT: delay extraction-based passive compact transmission-line macromodeling algorithm

With the continually increasing operating frequencies, signal integrity and interconnect analysis in high-speed designs is becoming increasingly important. Recently, several algorithms were proposed for macromodeling and transient analysis of distributed transmission line interconnect networks. The techniques such as method-of-characteristics (MoC) yield fast transient results for long delay lines. However, they do not guarantee the passivity of the macromodel. It has been demonstrated that preserving passivity of the macromodel is essential to guarantee a stable global transient simulation. On the other hand, methods such as matrix rational approximation (MRA) provide efficient macromodels for lossy coupled lines, while preserving the passivity. However, for long lossy delay lines this may require higher order approximations, making the macromodel inefficient. To address the above difficulties, this paper presents a new algorithm for passive and compact macromodeling of distributed transmission lines. The proposed method employs delay extraction prior to approximating the exponential stamp to generate compact macromodels, while ensuring the passivity. Validity and efficiency of the proposed algorithm is demonstrated using several benchmark examples