Power Integrity

Browse our library of resources to learn more about pcb design and power integrity.

Determining the Parasitic Inductance of a DC to DC Converter Unwanted parasitic inductance from capacitors and transformer leakage inductance in DC/DC converters cause power instability in digital systems. Here's how you can determine parasitic inductance in your power system. Read Article

What is Transfer Impedance in a PDN? We often talk about impedance in a PDN, but we always refer to self impedance. Here’s what you need to know about transfer impedance in your PCB. Read Article

12 Ideas for Implementing NFC in Your Design Read to learn about many possibilities for NFC; some of these project ideas are taken from commercially available products or research papers; others are ideas from working through reading the NFC standard. Read Article

Low Noise, Low EMI Power Distribution This board has several loads on it, but it is purely a distribution board with no regulation. The main loads are the hefty 5V Tilta nano focus motor, 5V SDI to HDMI converter, 5V Tilta follows focus control, and the battery voltage powered monitor. Out of these, only the SDI to HDMI convert needs remotely clean power. The motor, however, is very electrically noisy, so it needs good isolation. Read Article

Know the Power Dissipation Understanding power dissipation of an individual component, an electrical block, or even the whole electronics system is essential for electronics engineers. It is important not only to avoid exceeding the maximum limits of components but also to calculate unknown parameters in input or output sides because power dissipation is related to system voltage and current. In this article, I describe my practices for analyzing power dissipation in Read Article

12V DC Uninterruptible Power Supply I live in a rural village that tends to have intermittent power when there are high winds or storms. Because of this, my computers, servers, and network equipment are all on relatively low-cost, uninterruptible power supplies. These all run on sealed lead acid batteries and are not an overly efficient way to power a DC device such as a Raspberry Pi or internet router as the incoming mains. AC charges a DC battery, which then creates AC power Read Article

DesignCon 2020’s ‘Engineer of the Year’ Talks Power Integrity, Picosatellites, and Simulation Tools Istvan Novak, Principal Signal and Power Integrity Engineer for Samtec Inc. and winner of the DesignCon 2020 Engineer of the Year Award joins the OnTrack podcast to talk about picosatellites, simulation tools, and the rising importance of power integrity. Listen to the Podcast: Download this episode (right click and save) Watch the video: {"preview_thumbnail":"/sites/default/files/styles/video_embed_wysiwyg_preview/public/video_thumbnails/dUBig Read Article

High Voltage SMPS PCB Layout to Minimize Heat and Noise Whether you are performing AC-DC conversion or DC-DC conversion, switching power supply layouts are common in high voltage design and must be constructed carefully. Although this system is quite common, it will easily radiate EMI due to the fast changes in voltage and current during switching. Designers can rarely adapt existing designs into new systems as a minor change in one area can create an EMI problem that is difficult to diagnose. With Read Article

How to Select an Inductor for a Buck Converter An SMPS is one of those quiet (yet electrically noisy) devices that makes your favorite electronics run smoothly. They sit in the background quietly doing their duty, yet your board wouldn’t operate without them. As part of DC-DC converter design for power-hungry applications, component selection is quite important for ensuring stable power delivery to a load with high efficiency. Among the numerous DC-DC converter topologies, a buck converter Read Article

Debugging Power Supply Noise to Reduce Signal and Clock Jitter Low level components need ultra-stable power, and high speed digital signals need to have repeatable edge transition times. The two aspects of digital signalling are related, and you’ll need to suppress all aspects of power supply noise to reduce jitter in a digital system. During a design debug, you’ll need to gather measurements throughout your board if you want to isolate and eliminate sources of power supply noise. Here’s how you can isolate Read Article

How to Take a Phase Noise Measurement for High Speed Signals There are plenty of noise sources in your PCB, and phase noise can be one of those sources that is difficult to pin down in a real board. If you’re debugging a high speed board with high BER, then you’ll likely need to gather a phase noise measurement from the failing board section, or from your clock. Without getting too deep into the IC side of a system, phase noise may be an inherent property of the component you are using, such as the PLLs Read Article

How Do Pads and Vias Impact Total Capacitor Parasitic Inductance? In this blog article we discuss how the footprint and mounting style affect capacitor parasitic inductance. The pads and vias back to the PCB power planes increase the total series inductance of the capacitor. Read Article

Bypass and Decoupling Capacitor Placement Guidelines Power integrity problems are normally viewed from the perspective of the power supply, but looking at the output from ICs is just as important. Decoupling and bypass capacitors are intended to compensate power fluctuations seen on the PDN, which ensures your signal levels are consistent and a constant voltage is seen at the power/ground pins on an IC. We’ve compiled some important bypass and decoupling capacitor placement guidelines to help you Read Article

Is it Simultaneous Switching Noise or Crosstalk? How can you distinguish simultaneous switching noise and crosstalk? Take a look at the difference between these two signal integrity problems in this article. Read Article

Analog Signal Bandwidth and its Relation to Power Integrity Here’s how your analog signal bandwidth interacts with your PDN, and how it affects power integrity. Read Article

PCB Debugging: Tips, Tools, and Tricks There are some basic PCB debugging steps you should take when your new prototype has some signal integrity problems. Read Article

Living on the Edge (Rate) — It’s All About Time and Distance The focus of this article is the clarify the origins of the phrase edge rate, what it really means relative to the design process and the best means for addressing it. Read Article