Electrical characterization methods for high-speed interconnections

This paper reviews basic methodology for the electrical characterization of electronic packaging and interconnections in terms of scattering parameters, impedances, and equivalent-circuit transmission line parameters. It concentrates on a suite of methods developed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology for the characterization of high-performance electronic packaging and interconnections as well as monolithic microwave integrated circuits. The most accurate measurements require that the microwave network analyzer and probes be calibrated using custom standards, for the most part using easily fabricated transmission lines.