Understanding and modeling the impact of analog IPs on System-on-Chip's EMI

Abstract

In modern digital ICs, the increasing demand for performance and throughput requires operating frequencies of hundreds of MHz, and in several cases exceeding the GHz range. Following the technology scaling trends, this request will continue to rise, thus increasing the electromagnetic interference (EMI) generated by electronic systems. The enforcement of strict governmental regulations and international standards, mainly (but not only) in the automotive domain, are driving new efforts towards design solutions, modeling, and analysis techniques for electromagnetic compatibility (EMC). In this paper we analyze the impact of analog IPs on the EMC behavior of complex System-on-Chip (SoC) designs, and we demonstrate that neglecting their contribution is a fallacy. The experimental results obtained on an industrial automotive microcontroller validate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.