Digital Twin PI Simulators for 2000 amp AI, Cloud Compute and multi-die packages

Joint IEEE Ottawa and IET Ottawa Local Network Event

Delivering thousands of amps to the next generation of high-speed digital designs is fast becoming the biggest design challenge for the next generation of custom multi-die packages, AI Chips, and cloud server applications.    End-to-end power integrity digital twins with multiphase voltage regulators, PCB PDN with 100’s of capacitors, and dynamic loads are critical for mitigating expensive hardware failures when working with thousands of amps.  This presentation will explore the model fidelity trade-offs and lessons learned from simulating the Picotest 2000 Amp Transient Load Stepper demo board with a 55-phase MPS horizontal power delivery topology and over 700 decoupling capacitors. 

Constructing and validating the PI digital twin will demonstrate various power integrity simulation tools.  EM simulators for DC IR Drop, DC Electrothermal, and AC EM with Decap optimization.    Traditional frequency domain analysis with target impedance combined with the Sandler Non-Invasive Stability Margin (NISM) for assessing phase margin helps mitigate resonances by designing for low Q flat impedance.  Voltage regulator modeling brings up the challenges of dynamic control loops with small signal and non-linear large signal behavior.  Final end-to-end digital twin simulations make use of frequency domain Harmonic Balance simulators to jump directly to steady-state transient power rail ripple for final pass/fail criteria.  

Speaker

Heidi Barnes of Keysight

Biography:

Heidi Barnes is a Senior Application Engineer and Power Integrity Product Owner for High-Speed Digital applications in the EDA Software Solutions Group of Keysight Technologies. Her recent activities include the application of electromagnetic, transient, and channel simulators to solve signal and power integrity challenges. Author of over 30 papers on SI and PI, technical contributor for the new IEEE-370 Standard involving interconnect S-parameter quality after fixture removal, and recipient of the DesignCon 2017 Engineer of the Year. Recently elected Co-Chair for the IEEE EPS EDMS Packaging Benchmark Sub-Committee.

Prior experience includes 7 years in signal integrity for ATE test fixtures for Verigy, 8 years in RF/Microwave microcircuit packaging for Agilent Technologies,10 years with NASA in the aerospace industry, and 1 year with Arco Solar in the solar cell industry.

She has been with Keysight EDA software since 2012. She holds 5 patents and was awarded the NASA Silver Snoopy for her work on hydrogen fire and gas detection.
Heidi graduated from the California Institute of Technology in 1986 with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering.