{"id":353,"date":"2011-01-14T09:46:45","date_gmt":"2011-01-14T16:46:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.mentor.com\/hyperblog\/?p=353"},"modified":"2026-03-27T09:17:40","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T13:17:40","slug":"s-parameters-are-for-more-than-just-packages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/electronic-systems-design\/2011\/01\/14\/s-parameters-are-for-more-than-just-packages\/","title":{"rendered":"S-parameters are for more than just packages"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the digital design world, we have typically only seen S-parameters used to model packages.\u00a0 They are a popular output of 3D field solvers like IE3D.<\/a>\u00a0 But more and more, especially in SERDES design, we are seeing S-parameters being used for a variety of parts.\u00a0 One of the reasons for their growing popularity is their fater simulation time, especially when advanced simulation techniques are used, as in the case of Mentor’s complex-pole fitting in HyperLynx and ELDO.<\/p>\n

S-parameters are also used to model connectors, and even entire interconnects.\u00a0 In fact, it is often a good idea to extract an S-parameter for your entire interconnect, including any packages and connectors.\u00a0 This allows you to view the interconnect as one S-parameter, and look at data like the total loss across the interconnect.\u00a0 Many industry standard SERDES busses like PCI Express and Serial ATA specify a maximum total insertion loss through an interconnect.\u00a0 As such, comparing your total insertion loss from the channel S-parameter to that loss spec gives you an excellent indication of the performance of your link without having to run a long simulation.\u00a0 Of course, to really see the benefits of things like pre-emphasis and equalization to overcome channel losses, you should run some kind of time-domain simulation with your buffer\u00a0models.\u00a0 FastEye in HyperLynx\u00a0can really speed that up.<\/p>\n

For more information on recent developments in SERDES simulation, take a peek at my recent article in PCD&F:
\nhttp:\/\/pcdandf.com\/cms\/component\/content\/article\/171-current-issue\/7704-designers-notebook<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the digital design world, we have typically only seen S-parameters used to model packages.\u00a0 They are a popular output…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71672,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spanish_translation":"","french_translation":"","german_translation":"","italian_translation":"","polish_translation":"","japanese_translation":"","chinese_translation":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[32,1063,1111,1115,139],"industry":[],"product":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-analysis","tag-hyperlynx","tag-s-parameter","tag-serdes","tag-simulation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/electronic-systems-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/electronic-systems-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/electronic-systems-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/electronic-systems-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71672"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/electronic-systems-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/electronic-systems-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10293,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/electronic-systems-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353\/revisions\/10293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/electronic-systems-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/electronic-systems-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/electronic-systems-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/electronic-systems-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=353"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/electronic-systems-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=353"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/electronic-systems-design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}