The Fundamentals of High Speed SerDes Design High speed SerDes design goes far beyond computer peripherals The challenges in high speed SerDes design filter right down to the PCB level and are all about backplane/daughtercard design, transmission line layout, selecting proper equalization schemes, and much more. This even gets down to the fundamentals, where stackup and power integrity become critical when driving transmitters and receiver ICs. If you’re designing a PCB as part of a SerDes Read Article Some Pre-layout Power Spectrum Analyzer PCB Tips in Altium Designer Take advantage of your simulation tools before test and measurement. Here I want to expand a bit on the power spectrum analysis features in Altium Designer®. In a previous post , we looked at working with simulations involving a frequency modulated signal fed into a nonlinear component (an NPN transistor). In this simulation, we ended with the Fourier spectrum at the load resistor for various values of base voltage/current. In the time-domain Read Article DDR5 PCB Layout and Signal Integrity Guidelines: What Designers Need to Know Release of the DDR5 standard was announced in July 2020, about 18 months after the announced development of the first RAM module following the proposed standard. The standard allows peak speeds in excess of 5200 MT/sec/pin (compare that to 3200 MT/sec/pin with DDR4), with JEDEC-rated speeds up to 6400 MT/sec/pin and channel bandwidth increased up to 300 GB/s. Demand for this new generation of memories with 8, 16, and 32 GB capacities should Read Article Linux and Android: What’s the Difference When purchasing an off-the-shelf module or designing a customized module of your own using a design tool like Upverter (previously known as Geppetto), you have to select an operating system. Often, you have a variety of choices. Two popular open source software (OSS) platforms are Linux and Android. If you’re new to design, how do you know which one you want to use? There are complicated, highly technical answers to this question. However, if you Read Article Open Source Software - A Moving Target Open Source Software (OSS) is an attractive alternative to proprietary software platforms. There’s a lot to love about OSS. Lower cost is a primary decision driver for many companies. Others want to enjoy the freedom and flexibility to modify the software to their particular application requirements. Some companies don’t want to be at the mercy of the direction—or lack of direction—of proprietary software roadmaps. There’s also a lot to fret over Read Article Crowdsourced Voice Recordings: A Wearable AI Voice Recorder Is Shipping Use a Senstone and never miss a flash of creative genius again (Image source: Senstone.com) Were you ever a fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG)? If so, you may recall that the Starfleet officers and enlisted personnel wear small communicator badges on their left breast. These devices are presented in the shape of the Starfleet insignia and are activated with a light tap. They also incorporate a universal translator, which comes in handy Read Article OnTrack Newsletter: Cloud-based Design, RF and Design Tips OnTrack Newsletter December 2019 Vol. 3 No. 7 Altium 365: The New Frontier of Collaborative Cloud-Enabled Electronics Realization In this interview, we talk with Leigh Gawne, Chief Software Architect at Altium, to learn about Altium 365 and the impact he foresees that Cloud-enabled electronics realization will have on design engineers and the entire industry. (To see Leigh Gawne and team collaboratively design a board LIVE in Altium 365 at this Read Article Isolated USB Connection Project While working heavily with microcontroller projects in the past, I learned that computer USB ports can be fragile things. Simply shorting dozens of volts across the port just kills them dead—and there are so many other creative ways to destroy USB functionality on a motherboard! I’ve seen USB isolation devices on the market which solve precisely these sorts of problems (developers doing bad with their devices), however, I never really got around Read Article Ben and Judy 2019 Wrap-Up In this OnTrack Podcast Judy and returning guest Ben Jordan discuss everything from routing engines and signal integrity to what we can expect from 2020 and beyond. Watch full episode now. Read Article SoC FPGA Boasts RISC-V Processor Well, the current "hot off the press" (don’t burn your fingers") news is that the folks at Microchip Technology have just unveiled the details regarding their forthcoming PolarFire SoC FPGA family boasting a hardened real-time, Linux-capable, RISC-V-based microprocessor subsystem. If you are "in the know," you should be jolly excited by now. On the other hand, there's so much going on these days that it's easy to let things fall through the Read Article Power Consumption Optimization Power efficiency—energy efficiency if you’re a purist—has become perhaps the highest-profile aspect of system design. This is especially true for IoT applications where a device may need to operate for years on harvested energy or a cell battery. Thus, a critical stage of design is power optimization. Typically, the first stage of power optimization is setting the power budget . For example, the system spec might state that the device has to be Read Article 65W Single IC LED Driver Project One of the projects I’m working on for personal use at the moment is a high color rendering index (CRI) LED panel, which I’m aiming to make about 300W. I was exploring options for making a high-performance LED driver pcb that would be quite compact, and while I couldn’t build a 300W single IC LED driver, I was able to design a 65W one that didn’t look like it would melt right through the circuit board. See more Altium Projects or read more by Read Article Continuous Manufacturing Volume As a manufacturing term, it can mean different things, depending upon the industry. Volume production for an automotive OEM means hundreds of thousands of units. For an industrial CNC manufacturer, lifetime sales over decades might be in the tens of thousands. For many small design companies, producing even “low” volumes may be a manufacturing challenge. It takes success to be able to invest in infrastructure that supports higher volumes Read Article Substrate Integrated Waveguide Routing for mmWave PCBs The applications of mmWave signals used to be confined to defense, but now mmWave systems are becoming more common. You can thank car radar, UAV radar, upcoming rollouts of 5G, and current research on 6G for bringing mmWave technology into the mainstream. Routing with mmWave signals has forced designers to rethink their routing practices and interconnect designs. This has motivated many research groups and innovative companies to design new Read Article PCB Bus Routing and Layout: The Basics Power supply on a network switch Modern computing simply wouldn’t be possible without PCB bus routing and layout. The same goes for many digital systems that manipulate data in parallel. If you’re working on a new PCB design and you need to route a bus between different devices, there are some simple rules to follow to ensure your signals aren’t distorted and that successive devices are triggered correctly. As some designers may question the Read Article High Speed Routing Guidelines for Advanced PCBs You can create this advanced board with these high speed routing guidelines for advanced PCBs Newer designs are continuing to get faster, with PCIe 5.0 reaching 32 Gb/s, and PAM4 pushing signal integrity and speeds to the limit. Proper interconnect design must account for the lower noise margins of advanced devices, impeccable power stability requirements, and much more to ensure signals can be received properly. With advanced devices running at Read Article MIPI Physical Layer Routing and Signal Integrity MIPI physical layer routing (C-PHY) is typically used to connect these smartphone cameras to a processor. When most designers talk about routing standards, particularly for advanced devices, they typically refer to differential routing standards (e.g., LVDS) that enable high data rates. These signaling standards have proliferated computers, networking equipment, smart electronics, and other areas, and they have been critical for operating with Read Article Pagination First page « First Previous page ‹‹ Page82 Current page83 Page84 Page85 Page86 Page87 Next page ›› Last page Last » Load More