Power Bus Isolation Using Power Islands in Printed Circuit Boards

Power islands are often employed in printed circuit board (PCB) designs to alleviate the problem of power bus noise coupling between circuits. Good isolation can be obtained over a wide frequency band due to the large series impedance provided by the gap between the power islands. However, power bus resonances may degrade the isolation at high frequencies. The amount of isolation also depends on the type of connection between power islands and the components on the board. This paper experimentally investigates the effectiveness of several power island structures up to 3.0 GHz.