Hardware engineers are learning the hard way that power integrity (PI) requires electromagnetic (EM) simulation of the printed circuit board (PCB) power delivery network (PDN). Traditional rules-of-thumb and leveraging data sheet examples are not an option as designs move from hundreds of Amps (A) to thousands. 1000 A across a 100 microhm (µΩ) PCB PDN is still 100 millivolts (mV) of IR drop and 100 Watts (W) of power dissipating as heat. This is one of the fundamental reasons for transporting power at a higher voltage and lower current for as far as possible. Less power lost in the path to the load. The other reason is impedance. Power rail voltage ripple is a direct result of dynamic di/dt currents interacting with the path impedance. When currents go up, the target impedance must go down to keep power rail voltage ripple within specified limits. Controlling the power delivery DC resistance and the parasitic path inductances of the PCB is a critical part of creating a Digital Twin model for designing a 2000 A PDN for a dynamic digital load.
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