Design Automation


Tool with SPICE co-simulation performs crosstalk analysis of PCB connectors and packages

14 March 2001 Design Automation

Innoveda has demonstrated its XTK with SPICE co-simulation which enables analysis of crosstalk between connectors and packages on printed circuit boards. Innoveda has also rolled out the latest version of its ePlanner tool that enables designers to now analyse PCB schematics from Cadence Design Systems' Concept-HDL tool. The enhanced XTK and ePlanner tools were exhibited at DesignCon2001.

Customers using XTK with SPICE co-simulation now can extend the crosstalk analysis available at the board level to include crosstalk inside dense IC packages and connectors. This enables a more accurate analysis and the ability for customers to catch design problems earlier in the design cycle, rather than downstream where they are more costly to fix, according to the company.

XTK supports the Berkeley Standard SPICE model. "XTK now goes heads above the competition because it uniquely combines the high speed of its transmission line algorithm with the benefits of SPICE co-simulation," said Rick Almeida, Vice President of Marketing for Innoveda's Product Realisation group. "Since XTK is not SPICE-based, it is very efficient and very fast. Customers can actually use a SPICE-based model for drivers, connectors or packages, enabling XTK to perform die-to-die simulation."

XTK is a signal integrity analysis and crosstalk tool kit that provides a powerful suite of tools designed to help solve signal integrity problems on single PCBs, multiboard systems and MCMs. It is used both for pre and post-layout analysis. As part of Innoveda's ePlanner tool suite, XTK helps establish and drive rules forward into layout-based on electrical constraints. As a post-route sign-off tool, XTK imports data from all popular layout systems and exhaustively simulates all signals, verifying that electrical constraints have been met.

It consists of two components: a 2.5D Field Solver that computes the inductive and capacitive coupling matrices needed for crosstalk and transmission line simulation based on PCB geometry and materials, and conductor paths; and a network simulator that uses a proprietary algorithm - 10 to 100 times faster than SPICE-based algorithms - to simulate the results of coupled transmission line effects on digital signals.

ePlanner extends choices

The latest version of ePlanner, its pre-placement or pre-layout PCB analysis tool, enables designers to analyse PCB schematics from three different source tools: Innoveda's ViewDraw, Mentor Graphics' Design Architect and Cadence's Concept-HDL tools. This new functionality enables designers to select the planning environment of their choice. Unlike Cadence's SPECCTRAQuest and Mentor's Interconnect Synthesis (ICX) that are focused on their own PCB design systems, Innoveda says the ePlanner uses an open architecture supporting schematic data from many popular schematic capture tools.

ePlanner enables designers to do signal integrity and crosstalk analysis of a PCB design before layout, routing or fabrication. It uses XTK as the analysis engine. Designers can use XTK early in the design cycle, when it is easier, faster and less expensive to fix design problems.

For further information contact Kobus van Rooyen, ASIC Design Services, (011) 315 8316, [email protected]



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