Tutorial 6
Ram Achar, Carleton University
Accurate and efficient simulation of interconnects and power-delivery networks is essential for signal and power integrity analysis in advanced electronic packaging and systems. Detailed RC, RLC, and multiconductor transmission-line (MTL) models can produce large systems of equations, making repeated frequency- and time-domain simulations computationally expensive. This tutorial introduces the fundamentals of model-order reduction (MOR) and macromodeling, explaining how compact models can preserve the dominant behavior of these systems. Starting from circuit formulations and moment matching, the tutorial develops asymptotic waveform evaluation (AWE), complex frequency hopping (CFH) and PRIMA based Krylov-subspace projection methods, highlighting their relationships, numerical properties, and practical tradeoffs. Preservation of key model properties, including accuracy, stability and passivity are also discussed. The tutorial concludes with GPU acceleration of computationally intensive reduction and macromodeling operations. Participants will gain a foundation for selecting, constructing, and validating efficient models for signal and power integrity applications.
Prof. Ram Achar currently is a professor in the department of electronics engineering at Carleton University. Prior to joining Carleton university faculty (2000), he served in various capacities in leading research labs, including T. J. Watson Research Center, IBM, New York (1995), Larsen and Toubro Engineers Ltd., Mysore (1992), Central Electronics Engineering Research Institute, Pilani, India (1992) and Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India (1990). His research interests include signal/power integrity analysis, EMC/EMI analysis, circuit simulation, parallel and numerical algorithms, microwave/RF algorithms, modeling/simulation methodologies for sustainable and renewable energy, and mixed-domain analysis.
Dr. Achar has published over 250 peer-reviewed articles in international transactions/conferences, six multimedia books on signal integrity and five chapters in different books. Dr. Achar received several prestigious awards, Carleton University research achievement awards (2010 & 2004), NSERC (Natural Science and Engineering Research Council) doctoral medal (2000), University Medal for the outstanding doctoral work (1998), Strategic Microelectronics Corporation (SMC) Award (1997) and Canadian Microelectronics Corporation (CMC) Award (1996). He was also a co-recipient of the IEEE advanced packaging best transactions paper award (2007) and IEEE T-CPMT best transactions paper award (2013). His students have won numerous best student paper awards in international forums.
Prof. Achar currently serves as a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Electronic Packaging Society, Chair of the Distinguished Lecturer of Program for the IEEE EMC Society. Dr. Achar previously served as a Distinguished Lecturer (DLP) of the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society (CASS) (2011, 2012) as well as IEEE EMC Society (2015, 2016), and a guest editor of IEEE Transactions on CPMT, for two special issues on "Variability Analysis" and "3D- ICs/Interconnects". He also previously served on the executive/steering/technical-program committees of several leading IEEE international conferences, such as EPEPS, EDAPS and SPI etc. and in the technical committee, EDMS (TC-12 of EPS). He previously served as the General Chair of HPCPS (IEEE International Workshop on High-Performance Chip Package and Systems 2012-2016), General Co-Chair of SIPI- 2016 (Signal Integrity and Power Integrity Conference), General Co-Chair of NEMO-2015 (Electromagnetic and Multi-physics based modeling, simulation and optimization for RF, microwave and terahertz applications), General Co-Chair of IEEE international conference on Electrical Performance of Electronic Packages & Systems (EPEPS-2010, 2011), and as an International Guest Faculty on the invitation of the Dept. of Information Technology of Govt. of India, under the SMDP-II program. He is a founding faculty member of the Canada-India Center of Excellence, chair of the joint chapters of CAS/EDS/SSC societies of the IEEE Ottawa Section and is a consultant for several leading industries focused on high-frequency circuits, systems and tools. Dr. Achar is a practicing professional engineer of Ontario, a Fellow of Engineers Institute of Canada and IEEE.