ICD PDN Planner
Help Guide
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Introduction to the ICD PDN Planner
3
2. Fundamentals of PDN Analysis
3
3. List of Features in the 2013/2014 Release of the ICD PDN Planner
5
4. Creating a New PDN Analysis
6
A. Create a new PDN
B. Renaming the PDN
5. Plane Definition6
6. Voltage Regulator Module (VRM)
7
7. Target8
8. Capacitor Mounting8
A. Via Loop Inductance
Package Side
Fanout
B. Via Spreading
9. Capacitor Library Editor
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10. Configuration11
11. Export11
A. View Data
B. CSV
C. Copy to Clipboard
D. Export Excel Bill of Materials (BOM)
12. Quick Start - Using the ICD PDN Planner
13
13. ICD License Server (Nodelocked and Floating License setup)
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1. Introduction to the ICD PDN Planner
The ICD PDN Planner builds on the familiar ease of use of the popular ICD Stackup
Planner software that has been utilized by over twelve thousand PCB Designers and
Engineers world wide since 1996. The ICD PDN Planner is based on user’s ideas and
feedback.
• Flexibility of structure
• AC Analysis of multiple Power Supplies per substrate
• Analysis of the PCB Substrate
• Analysis of the Voltage Regulator Module
• Import of stackup planes
• Comprehensive Capacitor Library with over 1,500 parts
The user may add and delete an unlimited number of decoupling and bulk bypass
capacitors and instantly analyse the Voltage Regulator Module, PCB Substrate and
the decoupling and bulk bypass capacitors simultaneously to solve parameters for the
desired effective impedance of the Power Distribution Network. Also the ICD PDN
Planner supports multiple Power Supplies on the one substrate.
There is a comprehensive Capacitor Library with over 1,500 readily available Kemet,
Murata and AVX SMD capacitors listing Value, ESR, ESL, SRF, Voltage, Tolerance,
Dielectric Material and SMD Package Type, ready for insertion into the ICD PDN Planner.
2. Fundamentals of PDN Analysis
The PDN impedance for a computer based product, must be kept low and flat over a
large frequency range for improved product performance. A typical switching regulator
maintains a low impedance up to 10KHz (a). Above that, bulk capacitance provides the
low impedance up to 10MHz (b). High frequency decoupling is provided by ceramic
capacitors up to several hundred MHz (c) but above that only the plane capacitance
can reduce the PDN impedance (d). The power to ground plane capacitance of the PCB
provides an ideal capacitor in that it has no series lead inductance and little Equivalent
Series Resistance (ESR), which helps reduce noise at extremely high frequencies.
Ceramic capacitors reach their minimum impedance at their resonant frequency, which
is determined by the capacitance and the Equivalent Series Inductance (ESL). To meet a
target impedance at a particular frequency, a capacitance value is chosen so that when
mounted on the PCB, it will resonate at the desired frequency, and have an impedance
that is equal to its ESR. Then, a sufficient number of those capacitors are placed in
parallel so that the parallel ESR’s approach the desired target impedance.
Most of the inductance associated with a decoupling capacitor is due to the mounting
pad structure. Inductance is minimized by moving VDD and GND vias close to each
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a. 10uF Tantalum Capacitors
b. 100nF Ceramic Capacitors
c. Switch Mode Power Supply
e. Combination of all of the above resulting in the effective PDN
impedance
other and minimizing the length of via from the
pad to the power planes. Careful pad layout
design (low inductance) enables the use of
higher value capacitors for the same frequency.
Larger value capacitors generally have a lower
ESR, so fewer of them are required to meet the
target impedance.
Capacitor ESR determines the number of capacitors required to achieve a certain target
impedance, at a particular frequency, and is
therefore an important design parameter. The
ESR value typically reported by capacitor vendors
underestimates the actual ESR of a capacitor
mounted on a PCB.
The mounted inductance or ESL of a capacitor
is comprised of three components: Capacitor
footprint (land), capacitor height above or below the plane and power plane spreading
inductance. These three elements describe the loop that current must flow through
- The bigger the loop, the more the inductance. The footprint (land pattern) for a
capacitor dominates the ESL. It consists of via placement with respect to the pad, the
length and width of traces connected to the pad, and the way the vias are connected
to the power and ground planes. The location of the power/ground planes in the PCB
stackup controls the height of the via. Inductance directly depends on the magnetic
field, so reducing the energy associated with loop area reduces overall inductance.
d. Planes with 10mils spacing
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The second contributing factor to the inductance is the capacitor itself. The capacitor
forms a part of the current loop, hence contributes to the inductance. Typically a
capacitor is made of multiple plates connected alternately to the side posts. For a thicker
capacitor, the current has to flow up and down and effectively increases the length of
the current loop.
The inductance associated with current spreading into the power/ground planes
also contributes to the total mounted inductance. Current in the planes becomes
concentrated in the vicinity of the vias. Concentrated current creates a higher magnetic
field and therefore contributes to inductance.
Spreading inductance is higher at the edges and corners of the PCB. Current can
approach vias in the middle of the board from four different directions instead of two
when the capacitor is located at the corner of the board. Also the separation between
the planes contributes to the spreading inductance.
3. List of Features in the 2013/2014 Release of the ICD
PDN Planner
1. Import of Stackup planes directly from the ICD Stackup Planner.
2. Definition of plane size or shape, dielectric constant and plane separation for each
on-board power supply.
3. Definition of each Voltage Regulator Mode including Voltage, I max, I transient,
V ripple and a selection of switch mode or linear power supplies.
4. Frequency range F min and F max settings up to 100 GHz.
5. F target setting.
6. Z Target – automatically determined by the VRM settings.
7. Mouse-over PDN Impedance and Frequency readout on display.
8. Save/Save As – Imperial (inches) or Metric (meters).
9. Undo/Redo.
10. Setup -> Configuration dialog: Units – Metric and Imperial (also ability to save in
both units).
11. Copy to Clipboard – contains the Effective Impedance Analysis Graph.
12. View calculated data.
13. On-line Design Rule Checker (DRC).
14. Export Excel Bill of Materials.
15. Capacitor Library Editor – Including a starter set of 1,500 readily available
components.
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4. Creating a New PDN Analysis
The ICD PDN Planner has the ability to analyse an unlimited number of power supply
configurations simultaneously. A typical high speed multilayer PCB has five of six
individual power supplies that all serve a different purpose and must be regulated to
maintain power integrity during high current switching.
The ICD PDN Planner allows you to edit, rename and save a favourite custom PDN to
use again.
A. Creating an entirely new PDN
Open -> New is used to create an entirely new supply. A new TAB appears labelled.
See section (b) “Renaming the PDN” to rename the TAB.
B. Renaming the PDN
This custom supply can be renamed and saved to use on the next design.
Select the Supply TAB -> RMB -> Rename PDN-> My Custom Supply
File -> Save As -> My Custom Supply.pdn
To reuse this custom PDN: File -> Open -> My Custom Supply.pdn
5. Plane Definition
The PDN Planner is now fully integrated with the Stackup Planner. This allows the user
to extract plane information from the Stackup Planner.
A. Select the Stackup Name from the drop down menu. The default stackups
(2 – 18 layer) plus any user created stackups.
B. Select the Power Plane to analyze.
C. Select the plane above and below this power plane.
Alternatively, select “Define”. This allows you to enter the Dielectric Constant and the
distance between planes.
Note: If there is only one reference (above or below) uncheck the plane not required.
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The plane size can be rectangular and the X, Y dimension can be entered in order to
calculate the plane area or alternatively, an irregular shape area can be entered in either
square inches or meters.
The Dielectric Constant Er (Dk) of the core and prepreg materials can be entered. These
values are found in the manufacturer’s material datasheets and are called Dk and rated
at different frequencies.
The separation of the power and ground planes can also be entered in either inches or
meters. This assumes there is only one plane pair. But, if for instance there is a power
plane with a ground plane either side, then the distance to both ground planes from the
power plane needs to be considered.
For two planes pairs the equivalent plane separation is:
Equivalent Plane Separation =
1
(
1
1
+ )
h1 h2
where h1 and h2 are the distances from the power plane to each ground plane.
So for example, if we have the following plane configuration in the stackup:
h1 = 5 + 5 = 10, h2 = 4mil (for h1, signal copper sinks into prepreg)
Equivalent
Equivalent Plane
Plane Separation
Separation =
11
= 2.857 MIL
1 1 11 
(  + + )
h1
 10 h24 
6. Voltage Regulator Module (VRM)
The VRM of each power supply needs to be entered in order to determine the target
frequency of the PDN. Linear power supplies are generally used for analog circuits, but
switched mode power supplies are always used for power supply to digital circuits.
The voltage, maximum current, transient current and Voltage ripple need to be entered.
These values can be determined from the IC data sheets.
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7. Target
The frequency range of the PDN display is defined by entering values for F min and F
max in MHz. The default setting is from 10KHz to 10GHz which is the typical range for
the PDN. In reality, most of the action happens between 100MHz and 10GHz so this
range may be adjusted to clarify the display of the curves.
The F target is the vertical line on the display which represents the highest frequency of
interest. If for instance, you are using 266MHz DDR2 memory clocks, then this needs
to be adjusted to fundamental frequency. Also, odd harmonics of the clock can be
displayed with a dotted red line. The odd harmonics are of interest because it is at these
frequencies where it is important to keep the PDN impedance low or excess radiation
may occur.
Z target is the horizontal line on the display which represents the impedance target of
the PDN. Basically, you need to keep the effective impedance below both the Z target
impedance up to the F target frequency.
8. Capacitor Mounting
Capacitor Mounting includes two check boxes:
A. Via Loop Inductance
This allows the user to take into account the loop inductance of the capacitor mounting
which is a significant factor in PDN analysis.
Package
Accounts for the inductance of the capacitor footprint. This is taken from the IPC 7351B
Standard and assumes a nominal land pattern.
Side
Currently we assume that the power planes are in the centre of the stackup so the
distance to the top and bottom of the board are the same. This is a place hold in the
.pdn file for future features whereby the planes can be off center.
Fanout
Account for the inductance of the vias from the footprint to and back from the planes
enveloping the entire loop area. There are three selections
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End
Side
Dside
End: The end fanout has the most inductance as it increases the loop area.
Side: The side fanout makes the loop area smaller – hence less inductance.
Dside: Double side fanout reduces the inductance even further by putting two vias in
parallel for each pad.
The calculations are based on 20mil thickness and 20mil length traces with 10mil
diameter via holes.
B. Via Spreading
The via spreading should be checked (on) if the capacitors are not directly connected
to or very close to each IC power pin. The via spreading takes the inductance to each
capacitor into account assuming they are placed within an inch of the IC.
9. Capacitor Library Editor
The ICD PDN Planner Starter Capacitor Library contains 1,500 SMD Ceramic and
Tantalum capacitors from the Kemet, Murata and AVX range that are readily available
via Digikey (www.digikey.com). Please note that ICD is not associated with any of these
companies in any way. This is an excellent starter set to get you up and running fast. The
starter library lists the following for each capacitor:
Part Number, Value, ESR, ESL, Self Resonant Frequency (SRF), Dielectric, Type, Voltage,
Tolerance, Land (footprint), Comments and datasheet URL.
The main properties that the PDN Planner requires to analyse are value (in uF), Equivalent
Series Resistance (ESR) (in ohms) and the Equivalent Series Inductance (ESL) (in nH).
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The major capacitor manufacturers have SPICE analysis software, that can be
downloaded from their web sites, in order to determine the ESR and ESL of each
capacitor at its self resonant frequency. Unfortunately, the capacitor manufacturers do
no supply the ESR and ESL values in the datasheets. So, this is a very time consuming
process, analysing each capacitor one by one, and is prone to error.
The Capacitor Library Editor has two modes of operation:
1. Insert Mode – for placing a new capacitor into the PDN listview and graph.
2. Edit Mode – for editing/deleting/adding capacitors.
The user can change between modes by clicking the “Switch to Insert/Edit” button. The
buttons are fairly self explanatory. The user can edit the entries in the Capacitor Library
Editor by double clicking on a field, add a new capacitor using the ‘Add’ button and of
course ‘Save’ and ‘Delete’ entries. Also, you can double click in Insert Mode to add the
capacitor to the PDN.
The “Save As” button allows you to save the edited library to a backup directory or
create a network drive company library where all users on the corporate network can
access the one qualified library. The Change Location button allows you to point to a
particular library.
The default library locations are:
C:\Documents and Settings\ICD\Application Data\ICD PDN
Planner\Default for XP or
C:\Users\ICD\Application Data\ICD PDN Planner\Default for
Windows 7 up
Double clicking on the category column in Edit Mode allows
you to change the Default library entry to Added, Qualified or
Added and Qualified. This is to be used for Quality Assurance
purposes. It is important for library integrity to always maintain a qualified library that
has been verified by your company for use.
The All button allows you to select between Default, Added, Qualified or Added and
Qualified view to view these specific items only.
The Capacitor Library Editor use Boolean Search algorithms to search for specific items.
These are AND together. Drop-down menus allow you to select the Dielectric or Type
of capacitor.
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Right clicking (RMB) on a column allows you to sort a column up/down. This feature is
ideal for selecting by SRF or value.
10. Configuration
The Configuration dialog is shared with the ICD Stackup Planner and allows the user to
set the software defaults.
11. Export
A. View Data
This allows you to view the data created by the PDN Planner.
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B. CSV
The data created by the PDN Planner may be exported to Excel for further analysis.
C. Copy to Clipboard
This copies the current graphical display of the PDN to the Windows clipboard.
D. Export Excel Bill of Materials (BOM)
This lists all the capacitors used in the PDN, including properties, to an Excel spreadsheet
for a BOM.
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12. Quick Start - Using the ICD PDN Planner
If we consider a typical DDR2 design, there are a number of different power supplies
on the board. Some of these do not require analysis, for example the 12V input etc.
However, there are critical VRM’s that supply power to the processor and associated IC’s
and to the memory devices. These are typically 3V3, 1V8, 1V5 and 1V supplies. So each
of these need to be analyzed and adjusted to give a flat impedance over the required
frequency range.
First start by creating PDN’s for each supply. Select the ‘Insert new PDN’ icon or ‘New’
from the File Menu. Once the four PDN’s are created, RMB -> Rename PDN and rename
the PDN to something meaningful like 1V8 DDR2 and so on for all the PDN’s.
These PDN’s can be saved and recalled (opened) for future use on another project.
Let’s look at arguably the most critical PDN for DDR2 memory: 1V8
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A. Select the DDR2 1V8 PDN TAB.
B. Select the stackup used and pick the power plane to be analyzed – the plane above
and below. Fill in the Plane variables: The X, Y dimensions or area of the plane. If
for instance we are using DDR2 devices, then the plane area may be very small –
something in the order of 2 x 2 inches. Also select the dielectric material used for
core and prepregs and the separation of the planes.
C. In the VRM box, select Switch Mode, Voltage 1.8, I max may be 1 to 3 Amps, I
transient for a square wave is 50% and Voltage Ripple is generally 3 to 5%.
D. Adjust the Target frequencies (min/max) to the desired range. The target frequency
is typically the fundamental frequency (eg for 266 MHz clock). Z target is determined
by the VRM settings.
E. If you want to include the Via Loop Inductance in the calculations (which you
should), tick the box. If you are not able to put all the decoupling capacitors directly
on the IC power pins, then also check Via Spreading.
F. The Zvrm and Zplane are turned on by default. This shows the effective impedance
of the board without any capacitors at all. As mentioned previously, we need to
maintain a low impedance (below the Z target line) up to the maximum frequency
(F target line).
Start adding capacitors to the 1V8 supply. eg 25 x 100nF 0402 ceramic and 1 x 330
uF 1210 tantalum. Add these to the listview. RMB -> Insert Below. And double click
to insert each capacitor from the library, then add the quantity of each.
Add 25 x 100nF 0402
Add 1 x 330uF Tantalum 1210
This looks pretty good – flat impedance up to the target frequency. But we have yet
to consider the mounting loop inductance of each capacitor.
G. Enter the package (Pkg) Side (placement side) and Fanout type of each capacitor.
This increases the impedance of the PDN.
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H. You can RMB -> Change Row With … to change say an 0402 capacitor for an 0201
capacitor that may have lower inductance etc.
If the impedance goes above the target impedance, then try using side fanout. This
is all what-if analysis so you may need to change the values and package types of the
capacitors etc. Using the undo/redo feature is helpful for this.
Continue to analyze the remainder of the PDN TAB’s.
13. ICD License Server
ICD Stackup Planner and PDN Planner software now use Reprise License Manager
(RLM), a flexible licensing system produced by Reprise Software. There are a number
of ways in which the software can be licensed; this document describes the most
common, and how to use them.
A. Evaluation Licenses
When you download and install ICD Stackup Planner or PDN Planner from ICD’s
website, a 14-day evaluation license will be installed on your computer.
If you need further time to evaluate ICD Stackup Planner or PDN Planner, please contact
your local sales representative, or support@icd.com.au with your request.
B. Permanent Licenses
Once you purchase ICD Stackup Planner or PDN Planner, you will need a permanent
license to activate product features. The ICD Stackup Planner has three levels of
functionality that can be purchased and licensed. In addition, ICD Stackup Planner
supports exporting data to a number of different formats, which may be licensed
separately, as well. For each of these features and feature bundles, and for PDN Planner,
you may choose to purchase either node-locked or floating licenses – or a combination
of the two.
C. Nodelocked Licenses
If you plan to use ICD Stackup Planner and/or PDN Planner on just one computer, a
node-locked license is the simplest solution.
When you request a license from ICD, you will be asked to provide your computer’s
“hostid”. To obtain this information from your PC, run ICD Stackup Planner or PDN
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Planner on the computer on which you wish to install the license. Click the Help Menu,
and select “ICD Stackup Planner Licensing” or “ICD PDN Planner Licensing”. This will
display a dialog box similar to the one shown below:
Select the contents of the hostid field, and
send them to support@icd.com.au, along
with your license request. This will enable you
to receive a permanent or evaluation license
code, which is locked to your computer.
Once you receive this license code, copy and
paste it into the large text box, and select
“Save Changes”. This is all that is required to
install your new license.
D. Network Floating Licenses
If you wish to run ICD Stackup Planner and/or PDN Planner on more than one computer,
or on more than one computer concurrently, if you have multiple floating licenses, you
will need to purchase (a) floating license(s), and you will need to install and run the
License Server software.
Installing the ICD License Server
Download and install the License Server software from the ICD web site (www.icd.com.
au/downloads/ICD_License_Server_v2012_0901.zip - please note the version number
may be updated) on an appropriate computer on your network. This license server
computer should be on a computer that is available at all times, as ICD Stackup Planner
and/or PDN Planner will need to contact it to ensure that the licenses in use are valid.
The License Server can be administered via a Web interface on port 5054 of the
computer on which it is installed.
Navigate to this page, either by visiting http://localhost:5054 from the local computer,
or remotely via http://<computer_name>:5054 to view the License Server administration
page. In order to determine the “hostid” of your license-server computer, click on the
“System Info” button. Look for the heading “hostid”, and select the line that says
“Ethernet: …” Copy this information and e-mail it to support@icd.com.au to generate
licenses for your license server.
Once you receive the generated license codes from ICD, you will need to add them
to the license file on your license server. In Windows7, open the file C:\Users\ICD\
Application Data\License\icd_server.lic in an ASCII text editor. (C:\Documents &
Settings\ICD\Application Data\License\icd_server.lic on Windows XP. Copy the license
codes, paste them into this file, and save.
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You will need to restart the License Server in order for your new licenses to take effect.
Either use the Web interface at http://localhost:5054, and select the ”Reread/Restart
Servers” button, or use the Windows Services interface to restart the “ICD RLM License
Server” service.
Setting up Network Floating Licenses on a Client PC’s
Once you have installed license(s) on the
License Server, you will need to point your
client computers running ICD Stackup
Planner and/or PDN Planner to the license
server. To do this, install and launch ICD
Stackup Planner and/or PDN Planner from
the client computer. Click on the Help
Menu and select “ICD Stackup Planner (or
PDN Planner) Licensing”. This will display
the following dialog:
Enter the name of your license server (note:
non-case sensitive) in the appropriate text
box, and select Save Changes. To obtain the name of your license server computer,
ask your system administrator, or go to the license server itself, select Start, and type
“computer name” in the text field. In the search results, select “See the name of this
computer”. Scroll down to the “Computer name” field, and record the computer name.
Network Floating License Quick-start
1. Install the License Server
A. Download and install the License Server (Filename: License_server_setup.exe) on
the Server computer.
B. Once installed, the License Server can be administered via a Web browser on port
http://localhost:5054, or from a client PC on port http://<server name>:5054.
C. Get the hostid of the server: System Info -> hostid -> Ethernet: “.............................”.
D. Send this code to support@icd.com.au to receive a license.
2. Install the Server License
A. Add the license to the server computer.
B. Edit C:\Documents and Settings\ICD\Application Data\License\icd_server.lic, or C:\Users\ICD\Application Data\License\icd_server.lic on Windows7.
C. Paste the license codes to the end of the icd_server.lic file, and save.
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3. Restart the License Server
A. http://localhost:5054 -> Select Reread/Restart Servers.
4. Install the Client License
A. On the client PC, run ICD Stackup Planner -> Help -> ICD Stackup Planner Licensing.
B. Select Floating Licenses.
C. Enter the License-Server name.
D. Save.
Checking Network Floating License Server Status
To verify the status of your ICD Stackup Planner or PDN Planner network/floating
license, perform the following steps:
A. The License Server can be administered via a Web browser on port http://
localhost:5054, or from a client PC on port http://<server name>:5054. (Find
the server name by selecting “Start” from the Windows taskbar on the server
machine, then right clicking on “Computer”, selecting “Properties”, and scrolling
to “Computer name”, toward the bottom of the screen.)
B. Click the “Status” button on the left.
C. The license file, “icd_server.lic” should be listed.
D. Scroll down the page to “ISV Servers”.
E. Select Server Status, ”icd”.
F. The product should be listed in the License Pool Status.
G. If the product is not listed, it may be necessary to restart the license server.
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