[SI-LIST] Re: SSO and load capacitance

  • From: Scott McMorrow <scott@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: si-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Tue, 02 Aug 2011 12:17:03 -0400

Larry

Be careful.  Load capacitance looks like a momentary reflected short 
circuit to the driver.  If the driver is not well matched (for example 
low output impedance drive on a DDR driver), we have effectively two low 
impedance discontinuities on either end of the line, setting up a 
half-wave resonant circuit.  Now, you are quite right that the reflected 
discontinuity back from the load capacitance can never be larger than 
the initial SSO charge up of the line at the driver, however, it is 
possible to tune the delay such that the reflection reaches the driver 
at exactly the wrong time - when the driver switches during the next 
cycle.  With the right bit rate, a standing wave can occur, causing SSO 
to peak.

Scott

Scott McMorrow
Teraspeed Consulting Group LLC
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On 8/2/2011 11:18 AM, Larry Smith wrote:
> Jason - the comment is correct: the worst case SSN waveforms will be found 
> with minimum load capacitance.  But some explanation is required.
>
> First, SSN can be broken down into two components: inductive coupling and 
> PDN.  Steve is referring to the PDN part in his response. But usually the 
> greatest SSN noise amplitude measured at the far end of a signal transmission 
> line comes from inductive coupling, not PDN.
>
> Inductive coupling is related to mutual inductance between aggressor signals 
> and the victim signal.  It only happens during the rise (fall) time of the 
> driver because that is when the di/dt takes place.  To a first approximation, 
> the voltage noise that gets launched into a victim transmission line (under 
> the BGA that makes the SSN) is proportional to m*di/dt where m is the sum of 
> the mutual inductance from all the aggressors to the victim and i is the 
> current in the aggressors.  Mutual inductance occurs in the wire bonds, 
> package vias, balls and PCB vias and to a first approximation is proportional 
> to the length of these structures.
>
> These days, the aggressor rise time is on the order of 200pSec, which is the 
> time that it takes signals to travel about an inch down a transmission line.  
> The capacitance load in question is down at the far end of the transmission 
> line, let's assume 6 inches.  The 200pSec rise time aggressors launch an SSN 
> noise pulse into the victim signal net that is approximately 200pSec wide and 
> it arrives at the capacitance load about 1000pSec later.  The load 
> capacitance at the far end will have no effect on the SSN event that launches 
> the SSN glitch into the victim transmission line.
>
> When the SSN glitch arrives at the far end of the transmission line, it often 
> finds a 50 ohm termination.  The noise measured at the far end is identical 
> to the glitch launched into the near end, assuming lossless lines.  Now if 
> there is any capacitance load at the far end, glitch energy goes into 
> charging up the load.  The measured SSN glitch voltage amplitude will be less 
> with more load capacitance.
>
> Regards,
> Larry Smith
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: si-list-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:si-list-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On 
> Behalf Of steve weir
> Sent: Tuesday, August 02, 2011 4:41 AM
> To: si-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [SI-LIST] Re: SSO and load capacitance
>
> Oops the second formula was energy not charge.  It should have read
> Qload comes from Qbypass = Vdroop*Cbypass.
>
> Steve
> On 8/2/2011 4:24 AM, steve weir wrote:
>> Jason, there are two possible sources of confusion.  The first is
>> possible confusion between output load capacitance with die capacitance
>> per output driver.  Your intuition is correct:  If we simplify the PDN /
>> driver network to a switched capacitor representation, then we deposit
>> Qload = Vdd*Cload on each output line that switches from low to high,
>> and remove Qload from each output that switches from high to low.  For
>> the low to high switching outputs: Qload comes from Qbypass = (Vdd -
>> Vdroop)^2/2*Cbypass.
>>
>> The second source of confusion comes from the fact that any loads that
>> remain statically high can draw current from any load capacitance that
>> connects to the driver outputs, supporting other outputs that switch
>> from low to high.
>>
>> Steve.
>>
>>
>> On 8/2/2011 3:01 AM, Jason Young wrote:
>>> Dear Experts,
>>> I have read a couple of documents are from silicon IP vendors discussing 
>>> the number of power/ground pads needed to meet SSO requirements for a given 
>>> number of output drivers. These documents mention that worse case 
>>> conditions for SSO are with the smallest output load capacitance. At first 
>>> this seems counter intuitive.  My initial reasoning would be that a larger 
>>> capacitance would present a lower impedance load and hence greater dI/dt, 
>>> greater IR drop and greater supply rail bounce.  Could you please help me 
>>> understand?
>>> Regards,
>>> Jason
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>
> --
> Steve Weir
> IPBLOX, LLC
> 150 N. Center St. #211
> Reno, NV  89501
> www.ipblox.com
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