# High Current PDN Design: Engineer of the Year Reveals Industry Secrets

- Show: [OnTrack](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/ontrack)
- Published: 2025-04-21
- Length: 42m
- Episode: 296
- Page: https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/ontrack/2025-04-21-high-current-pdn-design-engineer-of-the-year-reveals-industry-secrets
- Listen: https://podcast.altium.com/e/high-current-pdn-design-engineer-of-the-year-reveals-industry-secrets/

## Summary

Ben Dannan, founder of Signal Edge Solutions and DesignCon's Engineer of the Year, discusses the engineering challenges of designing 2,000-amp power distribution networks (PDN) for high-power AI processors like NVIDIA's Blackwell platform. He details the industry's struggle with current densities exceeding 100 amps per square centimeter and the debate between vertical and horizontal power delivery architectures. Dannan also highlights the critical issue of inaccurate silicon models provided by vendors, which often lead to hardware overheating, and introduces his upcoming measurement-based model library for large-signal simulation.

## Chapters

- [0:00](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/ontrack/2025-04-21-high-current-pdn-design-engineer-of-the-year-reveals-industry-secrets#t=0) Introduction and DesignCon Award
- [2:56](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/ontrack/2025-04-21-high-current-pdn-design-engineer-of-the-year-reveals-industry-secrets#t=176) High Current Challenges in Data Centers
- [7:58](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/ontrack/2025-04-21-high-current-pdn-design-engineer-of-the-year-reveals-industry-secrets#t=478) PDN Crosstalk and Antenna Effects
- [10:38](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/ontrack/2025-04-21-high-current-pdn-design-engineer-of-the-year-reveals-industry-secrets#t=638) Vertical vs. Horizontal Power Delivery
- [17:11](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/ontrack/2025-04-21-high-current-pdn-design-engineer-of-the-year-reveals-industry-secrets#t=1031) Embedded Capacitors and Package-Level Solutions
- [23:38](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/ontrack/2025-04-21-high-current-pdn-design-engineer-of-the-year-reveals-industry-secrets#t=1418) Silicon Model Inaccuracies and Compensation
- [29:37](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/ontrack/2025-04-21-high-current-pdn-design-engineer-of-the-year-reveals-industry-secrets#t=1777) Substrate-Like PCBs and Interconnects
- [35:23](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/ontrack/2025-04-21-high-current-pdn-design-engineer-of-the-year-reveals-industry-secrets#t=2123) Measurement-Based Model Library

## Topics

- [PCB design & layout](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/pcb-design)
- [Analog & power electronics](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/analog-and-power-electronics)
- [Debugging & failure analysis](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/debugging-and-failure-analysis)
- [Embedded firmware](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/embedded-firmware)

## Most relevant to

companies scaling up

## Mentioned

- Signal Edge Solutions (company)
- NVIDIA Blackwell (product)
- DesignCon (other)
- Altium Designer (tool)
- Keysight (company)
- Ansys (company)
- Cadence (company)
- DuPont (company)
- Marada (company)
- HPE (company)
- AMD (company)
- Zylink (company)
- Pico Test (company)
- Google (company)
- University of Cambridge (company)
- TI (company)
- ADI (company)
- Microchip (company)

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- [Switching Converter Engineering with Carmen Parisi](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2021-11-15-switching-converter-engineering-with-carmen-parisi) (The Amp Hour)
- [Designing the AI Factory from the Rack Up](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/ee-times-current/2026-08-21-designing-the-ai-factory-from-the-rack-up) (EE Times Current)
- [Grow A Superbrain](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2019-04-22-grow-a-superbrain) (The Amp Hour)
- [An All Inclusive Journey to HPC/Data Center Silicon Success](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/ee-times-current/2022-10-21-an-all-inclusive-journey-to-hpc-data-center-silicon-success) (EE Times Current)

## Citing this page

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