Patent ID: 6937971

Claim:
A system for determining decoupling components for a power distribution system, said power distribution system including a voltage regulator module, the system comprising: a database of characteristic values for a plurality of decoupling components; and a computer system configured to: access said database of characteristic values for said plurality of decoupling components; accept known system parameters for said power distribution system; simulate the operation of said power distribution system, wherein said power distribution system includes a voltage regulator circuit coupled to a load, and wherein said simulation comprises: simulating a voltage regulator circuit using a mathematical model of said voltage regulator circuit, wherein simulating said voltage regulator circuit includes: simulating a voltage with a voltage source model; simulating ramping up or ramping down of current in said voltage regulator circuit with a model of a slew inductor; and simulating effects of output inductance on said voltage regulator circuit with a model of an output inductor; obtain an estimate of a bulk capacitance value for said power distribution system; perform a cyclical simulation of said power distribution system, wherein said cyclical simulation comprises simulating the operation of said power distribution system over a plurality of clock cycles; refine said bulk capacitance value based on results obtained during said cyclical simulation; select one or more different decoupling components based on said bulk capacitance obtained during said simulating the operation of said power distribution system and said known system parameters for said power distribution system and entries in said database; calculate a specific quantity for selected decoupling components, said selected decoupling components selected from said database based on known system parameters; and determine a location of placement within said power distribution system for each of said selected decoupling components based on said known system parameters and said entries in said database.