Equivalent Inductance Analysis and Quantification for PCB PDN Design

Power Distribution Network (PDN) design is an important part of high-speed digital designs. In order to meet the need of high operation speed and low power voltage supply, the impedance of PDN should be lower than the target impedance of the design requirement. Decoupling capacitors are added on the PCB to lower the PDN impedance. The PCB PDN design is often guided by design rules and experience. In this paper, commonly-used PCB PDN designs are analyzed and categorized based on inductance contribution from specific portions of the current path. Then, the inductance components are quantified for different parts of the geometry in different designs.