It is common for designers to insert power and ground wires in parallel between signal wires to shield the signal wires from coupling effects. However, this results in an increase in chip area, routing complexity and power dissipation. On the other hand,
reduction in coupling can be achieved by simply spacing the wires sufficiently far apart so that coupling effects are minimized and can be budgeted. In this paper, we present an effective decision making procedure with consideration of important performance
parameters for choosing the proper coupling avoidance method. Our proposed approach employs a comprehensive analysis of the relative merits of shielding vs. spacing methods. Our experimental results conclude that, contrary to conventional wisdom, wire-spacing is a better option than inserting shields for many cases, particularly those with an initial strong coupling component.
By: Ravishankar Arunachalam, Emrah Acar, Sani Nassif
Published in: RC22584 in 2002
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