Does anyone have experience using the RFTline Lib in Cadence IC616? I am trying to develop a multi-conductor transmission line model to implement in a high speed I/O design. In the development of my model, I am simulating S-Parameter data across frequency and comparing the results with EM simulations in Sonnet. So far my results are not agreeing, and I am not sure what I'm doing wrong.
My goal is to characterize the the match as well as crosstalk coupling between lines. I have used both mclin and ncline to model multi-conductor microstrip lines. I have instantiated a stackup and defined the dielectrics and conductors as they will be physically implemented.
The network I am modeling is illustrated in the figure below, with the exception that I am simulating 3 pairs instead of 2:
I have set up a 6 conductor nclin and am simulating a 12 port network. My test bench looks as such:
The dimensions I defined are: length = 2000 mils, Ws = 2 mils, s = 2 mils, h = 2 mils, t = 0.7 mils, 2 <= Sc <= 10 mils. These parameters correspond to the cross sectional figure above. I am sweeping from 100M up to 60G, and varying Sc between 2, 4, 8 and 10 mils.
The problem I am having is that when I increase Sc, the spacing between conductor pairs, my coupling performance degrades, which is opposite to what I think intuitively should happen. As this spacing increases (approaching infinity), the performance of the line should resemble that of a single pair; however, my results do not yield this behavior.
Below are my S-parameter results, where S55 is the reverse gain (S11), S65 is the forward gain (S21), and S45 and S85 are the coupling from adjacent lines. Notice how the line performance significantly degrades as coupled spacing increases:
These results do not match my EM simulations, which yield an increase in performance as coupling space is increased. Does anyone know of deficiencies with the RFTline lib or limitations to its use? I have read through the library documentation, and I cannot find any clues that would point to this behavior. Any input is greatly appreciated.
Cheers,
Daron