Sarah, you can work out the mutual coupling between the vias for your two cases. A 3D solver would provide the most accurate answer. For a manual math exercise you can apply Biot-Savart to this structure. "Physics" by Halliday and Resnick is a classic reference for determining inductance by the method of Biot-Savart. Dr. Johnson has demonstrated some derivations for signal and power via arrangements on his web-site www.sigcon.com. I believe that you are underestimating your via inductance. For an 0.062" board, 10 mil drills, and 40mils on centers I come up with 2.6nH for a via pair in isolation ( 1.3nH for each via ). To get down to 1.8nH for a pair, I show 20mil via drills as necessary. When you place a bunch of these next to each other, the inductance / via about doubles over a single via pair in isolation. When you place a pair that is reversed, at these dimensions, the inductance falls a little bit ( about 20% ) from the isolated case. Steve. At 06:54 PM 4/22/2005 -0700, Sarah Bates wrote: >Si-folk, >I am pinning-out a chip that will be used on a board that >does not use via-in-pad technology. In order to place >bypass caps in the 1mm ball field, I'll need to place 2 power >balls in a row and two ground balls adjacent to the power balls, >and drop an 0402 cap in between them. In order to maximize the number >of caps, I could then keep adding a pair of power and gnd balls, >and a cap. However, this will place all powers in one row and >all grounds in aonther row and so the mutual inductance of the >caps/vias in the power-delivery path will be increased. If I >try to alternate power and ground, I will not be able to place >as many caps, so how do I go about quantifying the trade-off between >the two scenarios. (Scenario 1 is having more caps, but a topology >in-which the mutual-inductance works against me. Scenario 2 is >having fewer caps, but alternating occasionally so that the mutual- >inductance works for me.) >For this analysis, I'm estimating a 10 layer board and via inductance >on the order of 0.9nH. I think this is reasonable. I would use 0.1uF >0402 caps. > >Here are pictures to clarify the question: >P represents a power ball >G represents a ground ball >|| represents an 0402 capacitor > >Scenario 1: >P P P P P P P P P P P P > || || || || || || || || || || || >G G G G G G G G G G G G > > >Scenario 2: >P P P G G G P P P G G G > || || || || || || || || >G G G P P P G G G P P P > >Please point me to any relevant books/papers if you know of any. > >Thanks, >Sarah > > >------------------------------------------------------------------ >To unsubscribe from si-list: >si-list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field > >or to administer your membership from a web page, go to: >//www.freelists.org/webpage/si-list > >For help: >si-list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'help' in the Subject field > >List FAQ wiki page is located at: > http://si-list.org/wiki/wiki.pl?Si-List_FAQ > >List technical documents are available at: > http://www.si-list.org > >List archives are viewable at: > //www.freelists.org/archives/si-list >or at our remote archives: > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/si-list/messages >Old (prior to June 6, 2001) list archives are viewable at: > http://www.qsl.net/wb6tpu > ------------------------------------------------------------------ To unsubscribe from si-list: si-list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field or to administer your membership from a web page, go to: //www.freelists.org/webpage/si-list For help: si-list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'help' in the Subject field List FAQ wiki page is located at: http://si-list.org/wiki/wiki.pl?Si-List_FAQ List technical documents are available at: http://www.si-list.org List archives are viewable at: //www.freelists.org/archives/si-list or at our remote archives: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/si-list/messages Old (prior to June 6, 2001) list archives are viewable at: http://www.qsl.net/wb6tpu