Patent ID: 8219377

Claim:
A method, operable on a digital computer coupled to a user interface, for simulating electrical characteristics of a plurality of power planes, each power plane including a plurality of geometric features, comprising the actions of: a. projecting the geometric features of each power plane onto a single planar construct; b. generating a polygonal mesh, including a plurality of pairs of interconnected nodes, that corresponds to the single planar construct; c. projecting the polygonal mesh onto at least one power plane of the plurality of power planes and generating an equivalent circuit between each adjacent node of the plurality of interconnected nodes projected onto the at least one power plane, thereby generating a plurality of equivalent circuits, each of the plurality of equivalent circuits describing an electrical characteristic of the at least one power plane in a region between each pair of adjacent nodes; d. assigning an equivalent capacitance between each node and a common ground plane; e. generating a finite element equation that includes a plurality of discrete terms, wherein each discrete term describes a different one of the plurality of equivalent circuits; f. solving the finite element equation so as to determine the electrical characteristic value between each pair of adjacent nodes in relation to an initial electrical property of the at least one power plane; and g. generating a human-perceptible indication of the electrical characteristic value between each pair of adjacent nodes of the at least one power plane.