What is Propagation Delay in PCB Design and the Best Tools to Work with It
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To resolve the question of what is propagation delay, you need the power of Altium Designer to handle this and other high-speed design issues.
ALTIUM DESIGNER
Working through propagation delay and other high-speed design interactions efficiently.
When you design high-speed circuits you will be working with a number of parameters that will affect how you create the design. One of these parameters is propagation delay, and it can have a critical effect on how your circuits perform. Propagation delays can refer to the time that is required for a signal to travel from its source to its destination. It can also refer to a logic gate delay, such as a “slow” NAND gate with lagging output state changes given the input state. This can cause problems in your design if the clock and the output pulses end up being out of sync.
Fortunately, Altium Designer has been equipped with circuit simulation tools and signal integrity tools to check outputs and input signals, along with other functions. You can simulate your circuitry in the schematic and then evaluate its signal integrity output from the layout. By using the full power of Altium Designer you will be able to correctly design your high-speed circuits to avoid problems from signal propagation delays.
What is Propagation Delay?
Signal propagation delays, transmission delay, line delay are some of the terms that are used and they can have different meanings depending on what you are working with. To give you a better understanding of the subject, we’ve assembled a collection of materials below that talk about the causes and effects of propagation delays. You will see how PCB materials can affect it and how you can work with your designs to mitigate the problems that can arise from it.
Propagation Delays in High-Speed PCB Design
Learn more about propagation delay and how you can better work with it.
- Understanding propagation delay and how to compensate for it is a critical part of your high-speed design.
Learn More about understanding and compensating for propagation delay.
- Transmission delay and propagation delay are sometimes used interchangeably, yet can mean different things depending on whether the system is analog or digital.
- FR4 may not be the best solution for your high-speed board materials because of how it interacts with high-speed design parameters such as propagation delay.
Learn More about how your PCB materials can affect propagation delay.
- Propagation delay can have a direct effect on how you determine the impedance values for your high-speed design.
Learn More about propagation delay when calculating impedance values.
- Parasitic capacitance is affected by a number of factors including the board substrate and the interconnect density, and in turn, it will have an effect on propagation delay.
Learn More about board substrates, parasitic capacitance, and propagation delay.
Altium Designer’s high-speed design tools will help with tuned routing like this
High-Speed Design Tools
Working with propagation delays and other high-speed design parameters requires advanced PCB design tools. Altium Designer is prepared for your high-speed design needs with these tools already built into the system. With the layer stack manager in the PCB layout tools, Altium Designer will calculate the impedance based on the board materials you are using and send that data on to the design rules.
There you can create custom trace routing widths for whatever impedance values you desire. Also in layout, you can use the xSignals tools to set up high-speed constraints for signal paths, measured lines, and routing topologies. You additionally have signal integrity tools ready to help you as well as circuit simulators within the schematic tools. With Altium Designer you are more than ready to handle any high-speed board design requirements that you are confronted with.
Altium Designer Has the Tools You Need for High-Speed Design
Altium Designer gives you the tools you need for resolving propagation delays and other high-speed design issues.
- With Altium Designer you have the ability to calculate the impedance of your PCB design and input those values directly into the design rules for controlled impedance trace widths.
Learn More about Altium Designer’s stackup impedance profiles manager.
- Altium Designer’s xSignals tool will give you the precision control you need over your high-speed signal paths, measured lines, and routing topologies.
Learn More about the high-speed design capabilities in Altium Designer.
- With built-in signal integrity tools and circuit simulators, Altium Designer gives you the ability to fully check your design before you go to a prototype build.
Altium Designer’s simulation and signal integrity tools will help your high-speed designs
Advanced Tools for Your Advanced Designs
To stay at the top you need to be able to quickly and accurately create the latest design technologies for your products. To do this you need PCB design tools that have been enhanced to give you every productivity advantage possible to shorten your design time and eliminate design errors. Altium Designer is continuously being enhanced to give you every design advantage possible.
To help your schematic creation Altium Designer has been enhanced with new part searching capabilities that will allow you to quickly find the parts you need along with all of their pricing, availability, and technical data. Altium Designer’s layout has also been enhanced with updated microvia support giving you much better control over the layout of your HDI designs. And to make sure that you keep your design schedule tight, you can use Altium Designer’s powerful 3D engine to adjust and verify your parts placement not only to other parts on the board but also to imported mechanical models and other system board designs. With Altium Designer you have design software that will grow with you as you grow making sure that you always have the most advanced PCB design tools available.
PCB Design Tools that are Enhanced for Next Generation Designs
If you are designing high-speed PCBs, you will need all of the advanced tools in Altium Designer to help with the latest design technologies.
- To design the latest technologies you need Altium Designer’s quick and accurate access to the parts you need for your design.
Learn More about the enhanced part searching features in Altium Designer.
- Whether you are miniaturizing your designs or increasing the density of your circuitry, Altium Designer’s enhanced microvia support is what you will need for success.
Learn More about Altium Designer’s solutions for microvias in HDI designs.
- With shrinking design schedules, Altium Designer’s native 3D engine gives you the ability to fully check your design to the imported mechanical features and other system boards before you go out for manufacturing.
To expertly deal with propagation delay and other high-speed design effects on your circuitry, start using Altium Designer today.
