This may seem a strange question for someone who’s made their living out of signal integrity for so long, but things have changed. There was a period in the 80s and 90s that I call the SI Deficit: the period when signal integrity issues took engineers by surprise and my specialty was even called “Black Magic”. The design landscape has changed radically since then – the main reason for this being standardization…
The importance and recognition of Signal Integrity (SI), Power Integrity (PI) and Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) in PCB design continues to grow. Just a few weeks ago I had one busy week participating in various seminars on signal integrity and EMI simulation. The first saw me flying to Oslo in Norway for the DNU Spring [...]
In the first part I covered just the bare essentials of why Low Voltage Differential Signalling (LVDS) is so popular. So what’s important about how these high-speed differential signals are routed, and why? I’m going to focus here mainly on PCI Express, but the differential routing considerations apply equally to other LVDS technologies and to differential [...]
Introduction Over the next few weeks I’m going to talk to you about the high-speed design challenges associated with Low Voltage Differential Signalling (LVDS) and how to overcome them. Today I’ll start by mentioning some applications of LVDS and some basics about how it works. Next week I’ll share my knowledge on effective and efficient [...]
Recently, I attended the HSPICE SIG (Special Interest Group) event held in Santa Clara as an adjunct to DesignCon 2011. Zuken was invited to host a booth as an HSPICE Integrator Program partner. I thought I’d take this opportunity to share with you the highlights of the day. More About Synopsys HPSICE SIG The Synopsys HSPICE SIG is [...]
Some of you already suggested the correct answer (was it the coffee mug prize which attracted you to actively participate?) This New Year quiz did not require too much effort, did it? Click here to see the first post. Thinking about the IC on the lower part (D200) – as it is a high-pin count [...]
First of all Happy New Year, I hope you all had a nice holiday period. Here comes the second ‘Spot the Mistake’ brainteaser. If you didn’t catch the first ‘Spot the Design Mistake’, why not go and check it out now. This is an excerpt from a design where we supported a company with some design optimization consulting [...]
Why would you as a PCB designer take on this task of signal integrity screening? Clearly, I am suggesting adding to your already compressed schedule – I can’t deny that fact. And by performing this action, we are departing from traditional placement and routing activities. But hold on, before you switch off – when proposing this action to designers, some have actively told me that they want to increase their value in the design process. Others desire a better understanding of the effects of their routing choices, and a few totally embraced the idea on its own merits – the overall time and money savings for the organization.
You could pick up any PCB or electronics design magazine and probably at least one article will be devoted to some aspect of high-speed digital design; be it routing techniques, signal integrity analysis, electromagnetic compatibility or power integrity. This has now become a mainstream design practice. Being able to achieve successful designs repeatedly suggests that [...]
This is the second part of the first ‘Spot the design mistake’ feature that I published last week. As a quick reminder, the aim of these ‘High-Speed Design Corner’ posts is to create a series of periodic posts that will present different high-speed and board design scenarios, and allow you to showcase your design talents by telling us what [...]
