Developing a "physical" model for vias

Vias in printed circuit boards (PCBs) and packages are among the components of most concern with respect to signal and power integrity in high-speed communication systems. A good amount of research has been conducted to analyze their behavior. However, when it comes to "physical" or "physics-based" understanding and modeling, vias prove to be quite elusive due to their complex environment. In our opinion the lack of physical via models leads to increased design times and over-engineering, both of which negatively impact system cost. In this paper we will review existing models and summarize our results based on measurements and simulations.