ABSTRACT
The FD Contour-Integral Method (CIM) is a well-established numerical technique for the efficient analysis of planar circuits of arbitrary shape. Thanks to its simplicity and versatility, the method is applicable to signal and power integrity analysis of complex high-speed multilayered PCBs, for which it readily provides their parallel-plate impedances, as well as to analyzing closely related EMI issues. The integral relation is traditionally solved upon applying the point-matching procedure along with the piecewise-constant field expansion over each of the (relatively small) line segments approximating the circuit's rim. A straightforward technique that may improve the convergence of the method is to employ the rectangular testing functions. On the other hand, as the pulse-matching solution requires computation of integrals, one should carefully consider whether the improvement is worth the efforts for practical purposes.
