Case Study: Intel achieves improved signal integrity and faster simulation speeds with COMSOL Multiphysics

Defying Convention to Achieve Faster Signal and Simulation Speeds

Intel’s Guadalajara Design Center needed to optimize shrinking, high‑speed package interconnects on PCBs to reduce impedance mismatch and return loss while speeding up simulation and design cycles. To model complex 3D electromagnetic couplings accurately and accelerate development, Intel engineers used Comsol Multiphysics for full‑wave electromagnetic simulation of single‑ended interconnects.

Comsol combined detailed 3D (fine) and simplified 2D (coarse) models in COMSOL Multiphysics and Intel implemented a Broyden‑based space‑mapping optimization (run from MATLAB) to map the fast 2D optimum onto the accurate 3D model. The approach reduced full 3D optimization to just four iterations, produced a significant reduction in reflected signal (|S11|) and lower return loss compared with the original prototype, and shortened the design cycle and time to market.

Intel

Juan C. Cervantes-Gonzalez

Engineer