Skip to main content
Mobile menu
PCB Design
Altium Designer
World’s Most Popular PCB Design Software
CircuitStudio
Entry Level, Professional PCB Design Tool
CircuitMaker
Free PCB design for makers, open source and non-profits
Why Switch to Altium
See why and how to switch to Altium from other PCB design tools
Solutions
For Enterprise
The Last Mile of Digital Transformation
For Parts and Data
Extensive, Easy-to-Use Search Engine for Electronic Parts
Altium 365
Resources & Support
Explore Products
Free Trials
Downloads
Extensions
Free Altium 365 Tools
Online PCB Viewer
Resources & Support
Altium / Renesas Scheme: Information for Shareholders
Renesas / Altium CEO Letter To Customers
All Resources
Support Center
Documentation
Altium Community
Forum
Bug Crunch
Ideas
Education Programs
Professional Training / Certification
University / College Educators
University / College Students
Webinars
Store
Search Open
Search
Search Close
Sign In
Signal Integrity
Main menu
Home
PCB Design
Collaboration
Component Creation
Data Management
Design Outputs
ECAD/MCAD
HDI Design
High Speed Design
Multi-Board
PCB Layout
PCB Routing
PCB Supply Chain
Power Integrity
RF Design
Rigid Flex
Schematic Capture
Signal Integrity
Simulation
Software
Altium 365
Altium Designer
Enterprise Solutions
PDN Analyzer
Upverter
Education
Programs
Altium Academy
Engineering News
Guide Books
Newsletters
Podcasts
Projects
Training Courses
Webinars
Whitepapers
FREE TRIALS
SPICE: Certainty for All Decisions
Design, validate, and verify the most advanced schematics.
Learn More
Signal Integrity
What is the Electrical Return Path in a PCB?
One of the fundamental aspects of any circuit diagram is the return current path or electrical return path. In a circuit diagram and a schematic diagram, the path the current follows to return to the low potential side of a power source should be obvious, but it may not be so obvious in a PCB. To quote the great Eric Bogatin at his PCB West 2019 presentation, the distinction between a schematic diagram and a PCB layout lives in the white space of
Read Article
RF Signal Chain Design for FMCW Chirped Radar Systems
If you could hear the output from your chirped radar system, it might sound like a brahminy starling In automotive and UAV radar applications, radar signals are amplified throughout the signal chain. Amplification is critical for ensuring the reflected signal can be accurately detected and for maximizing the range and resolution of your radar system. Although there are some ICs that integrate an entire signal chain into a single package, these
Read Article
RF Power Amplifier Impedance Matching at Microwave and mmWave Frequencies
According to MarketWatch, the overall market for RF amplifiers is expected to surpass $27 billion by 2023. So where are all of these RF amplifiers expected to be used? You can thank 5G and the expansion of cellular networks in general for a healthy portion of the expected growth. For the PCB designers out there, RF amplifier impedance matching becomes an important design point, especially with high power amplifiers. Large-signal RF Amplifier
Read Article
Reading Impedance Profiles of High Speed Backplanes
Impedance remains a confusing topic in the signal integrity community. By definition, impedance is the ratio of voltage to current. That doesn’t really paint a clear picture to anyone. Getting more specific, the term impedance can mean several things. Step response of broadband reflection coefficient in ohms Impulse response of broadband reflection coefficient in ohms Time domain Z-parameters Frequency domain Z-parameters Signal Integrity
Read Article
77 GHz Radar for Automotive Radar PCBs: Routing and Signal Integrity
Technology moves quickly these days, and automotive radar has transferred from primarily operating near a 24 GHz to a 77 GHz wavelength shortly after its introduction into new vehicles for object detection. Recent regulation changes have allowed the transition to 77 GHz, which provides a number of benefits. Shorter wavelengths facilitate wider bandwidths, and provide better resolution, smaller device form factors, and longer range. This band just
Read Article
Relative Permittivity of PCB Substrates: High-k or low-k dielectrics?
The relative permittivity of water makes this pencil appear bent If you’ve paid attention to refraction, then you know something about the physics of relative permittivity. The semiconductor industry has managed to continue scaling to smaller technology nodes by using materials with high dielectric constant (so-called high-k dielectrics), but can you see similar benefits in your PCB with similar substrate materials? What about the use of low-k
Read Article
Damping and Reflection Transfer with a Series Termination Resistor
Trace, source, and load impedance matching are important in boards that contain transmission lines. To reach these conditions, you may see some designs that use a series termination resistor on single-ended transmission lines. The reasoning for doing this is sometimes to slow down a signal, or sometimes to set the driver's output impedance, depending who you ask. As surprising as it might be, the placement of series resistors for termination are
Read Article
Signal Integrity Simulations for Backplane Bus and Connectors
Modern embedded computing systems that interconnect a large number of modules in a single enclosure will probably need a backplane, and the buses connecting these systems run at multi-Gbps data rates. The connectors, PCB, and interfaces in total contribute to losses throughout the bus, and a system-level simulation will need to account for all of these elements to ensure a working design. As part of a design and verification flow, simulations are
Read Article
Backplane Routing Topology for Gigabit Copper and Fiber Networks
Backplanes are the backbone of modular computing platforms, providing a fabric that interlinks pluggable daughtercards in a single system. The design of backplanes must support interfaces on the daughtercards, often at high data rates reaching multiple Gbps. Some standards also specify system design requirements that support RF or fiber integration into these systems. The RF and fiber portion is normally integrated through a specialized connector
Read Article
Optical PHY PCB Layout for 100 Gigabit and Faster Ethernet
Need to layout a board to connect to an optical PHY transceiver? Here are some high speed design aspects you’ll need to consider.
Read Article
Silicon Photonics Integration Challenges in PCB Design
Silicon photonics will use the same manufacturing processes used in silicon ICs I was honored to meet Richard Soref at a recent IEEE conference and discuss the current state of electronic-photonic integrated circuits (EPICs). The man is often called “the Father of Silicon Photonics”, and for good reason. If you ask him nicely, he’ll tell you how to build all the fundamental logic gates as photonic circuits directly on silicon. Now is a landmark
Read Article
Insertion Loss Deviation or Intersymbol Interference Noise?
In a previous blog, I discussed how channel quality is quantified by eye patterns [1]. There, it is explained how eye patterns are created from the thru S-parameters only. So, if you are using the thru S-parameters alone, do reflections even matter? Intuitively, it would seem like they don’t matter since they are not directly used to calculate the eye pattern. S-Parameters Still Matter But, of course reflections matter! Reflections cause signal
Read Article
How to Layout a Phase-locked Loop IC in Your RF PCB
As part of telecom systems, radio systems, and other RF devices requiring frequency synthesis, phase-locked loops play an important role in PCB design. High frequency transceivers and high speed digital devices contain integrated phase locked loops alongside an integrated VCO layout, which provides stable and internally controllable clock signals. However, some PLL ICs are available as discrete ICs, which will include an integrated VCO layout
Read Article
The Role of a Decoupling, Inductors, and Resistance in a PDN
What is the role of a RF decoupling capacitor? Do I need a decoupling circuit for my PCB? Some designers might overlook the role of a decoupling, inductance, and resistance when designing their power distribution network.
Read Article
Decoupling Capacitor Calculations: What Size Should You Use For Digital ICs?
Are these decoupling capacitors sized properly? Something that comes up repeatedly in PCB design guidelines, including high-speed digital design "gurus", is the need to find the proper decoupling capacitor size. This is sometimes addressed without a full understanding of what these caps are supposed to do in a PDN or their role in ensuring power integrity. I've also seen many application notes that default to the decades-old guideline of placing
Read Article
Symmetric Stripline Inductance or Impedance Calculators and Formulas
In a previous article, we looked at the inconsistencies that can arise when using different calculators to compute the impedance of surface and embedded microstrip traces. Many of the same issues mentioned in the previous article apply to stripline impedance calculators. Symmetric striplines are easier to address than asymmetric striplines, both numerically and analytically. Here, we’ll give a short comparison of the various impedance formulas
Read Article
5G Antenna Tuning in Mobile and IoT Devices
5G antenna tuning is like tuning a guitar as you play Guitar players know all about tuning their instruments. Whether swinging a whammy bar on stage or just ensuring each string hits the right note, this tuning changes that the resonant frequencies of each to the tone desired by the musician. To continue the recent series of articles on PCB design for 5G systems, one other aspect of designing RF design for 5G-capable wireless systems involves a
Read Article
Pagination
First page
« First
Previous page
‹‹
Page
10
Current page
11
Page
12
Page
13
Page
14
Page
15
Next page
››
Last page
Last »
Load More