SPICE: Certainty for All Decisions

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Signal Integrity

PCB critical length

Can We All Stop Quoting the Critical Length Rule? Let’s all agree to stop using the PCB critical length rule in high-speed PCB design. Read Article

Optical PHY PCB Layout for Gigabit and Faster Ethernet

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

Impedance Management Through PCB Stackup Design With Reference Planes

Impedance Management Through PCB Stackup Design With Reference Planes Learn design strategies for using controlling impedance and controlled dielectric in your PCB for accurate manufacturing. Read Article

Trace Resistance vs Trace Impedance

When Trace Resistance Trumps Trace Impedance Trace resistance, trace impedance, plane resistance, and plane impedace: when do you need to worry about all of these quantities? Resistance and impedance both are important in small traces and fat rails on a PCB, both internally and externally. Sometimes a new designer entering the world of impedance controlled buses might think they have a trace resistance target, when really they have a trace impedance target. While in power electronics, we Read Article

PCB power integrity

The Beginner's Guide to PCB Power Integrity: From Board to Package In this article, we give a complete overview of power integrity, starting from the PCB and including everything up to packaging. Read Article

How to Design High-Speed & RF Via Transitions

How to Design High-Speed & RF Via Transitions High speed PCBs and RF PCBs often need to make via transitions that carry signals between layers. We’ll look at how to design these transitions in this article. Read Article

Stepped Impedance Transformer for Complex Loads

Stepped Impedance Transformer for Complex Loads This article will show how a complex load can be converted to a real load with an impedance transformer for any line length and impedance. Read Article

RF Trace Taper

How to Design an RF Trace Taper for Impedance Matching Transmission line taper structures can provide superior impedance matching between two transmission lines with approximately real impedance. Read Article

PCB Routing and Layout to Minimise EMI

PCB Design Tips for EMI and SI Part 2 In this article, Philip tackles the basic principles and ways you should route and lay out your PCBs to minimise risks of EMI problems, and to maintain proper signal integrity. Read Article

Reflectionless Matching vs. Conjugate Matching

Reflectionless Matching vs. Conjugate Matching: An Apparent Contradiction Are reflectionless matching and conjugate matching contradictory? When we look at the formulation for power waves and S-parameters, we see where these are different. Read Article

PCB Design Tips for EMI and SI Part 1

PCB Design Tips for EMI and SI Part 1 Read and learn the basics of signals, energy, and fields, as well as rise and fall times in the digital domain and what this means for us as PCB designers. Read Article

Link Budget Calculator

RF Signal Chain and Link Budget Basics Learn about link budget in RF design and use our link budget calculator to evaluate your RF signal chain. Read Article

Cutting Edge Technology in Packaging with an Interposer

Cutting Edge Technology in Packaging with an Interposer In this episode, our guest Joe Dickson, tells us about the cutting-edge technology implemented in advanced packaging at Wus Printed Circuit International. Read Article

Plated Through-Hole Vias in mmWave PCBs

Plated Through-Hole Vias in mmWave PCBs Plated through-hole vias in mmWave PCBs can ruin signal integrity in your RF interconnects if not implemented properly. Learn how to size and place stitching vias in this article. Read Article

How to Select Copper Foil

How to Select Copper Foil for High-Frequency PCB Design Learn how to choose the right kind of copper foil for your high frequency PCB stackup. The same ideas apply to selection of copper for high-speed PCBs. Read Article

via impedance calculator

Why Most Via Impedance Calculators Are Inaccurate Via impedance calculators are only useful in the low frequency range, where impedance control is typically not needed. Read Article

The Skin Effect, Current Density, and the Electromagnetic Field

The Skin Effect, Current Density, and the Electromagnetic Field Do you know how the skin effect alters the electric and magnetic field around a transmission line? We’ll address an important misconception in this article. Read Article