High Speed PCB Design Onsite Course

In this 2-day course the focus is on what must be understood to take the schematic and transform it into a working PCB design while keeping costs under control. Emphasis is on digital circuits, with new content added recently about analog. Information presented in this course can be applied to high-speed digital and analog designs well up into the Giga-hertz range.

High-speed circuitry used in today's product designs can cause lots of noise problems if not properly planned and managed in layout. Solving signal noise problems at the system level can be very expensive and must be solved at the board level. Learn what causes noise, how to calculate and manage it for successful product designs.

Who Would Benefit:

The course has proven to be of immense value to circuit as well as CAD designers and those involved in design, testing, troubleshooting and debugging of today's high-speed circuits.

It is recommended your primary board fabricator be present during the class since a lot of discussion will center about the performance of circuits based on the material and structures used in the design.

Course Content:

The course material was authored by James C. Blankenhorn (biography is included) in 2003. There are 15 sections. A very brief summary follows for each section.

1-Basics of High-Speed & Switching

Learn about the energy sources that create high frequency edges when switching voltage. Mastering this is fundamental to understanding high speed and how speed and distance relate to each other.

2-Substrate Materials & Fabrication

New requirements are placed upon designs when moving into higher frequencies. In this section you learn about materials, their properties and what questions you need to have answers to when working with your fabricator.

3-Packages & Connectors

Little affects high speed more than the package selection. Learn what packages impact design performance and how. This up to date section looks into current and new package technologies.

4-Semiconductor Devices

The effects of changes in the semiconductor industry are key to faster circuits. Look into both the input and the output of devices to see how they work and affect your design.

5-Transmission Lines & Differential Pairs

Becoming familiar with the effects on signals being on any layer within your board is important in understanding the loading and performance to be expected. Also included are up to date formulas.

6-Layer Stack-ups

The stackup is vital. If not properly stacked, even a well-designed board will not achieve expectations. We look into various layer counts and combinations with discussions about your product and what makes the most sense for your company to use.

7- Decoupling & Power Distribution

The presentation covers decoupling capacitors, where and how they are and are not effective and how to utilize the planes to aid in decoupling. Other items include quiet and noisy planes, routing across gaps, splitting planes, switching transients and designing the correct power distribution system.

8-Coupling & Parallelism

These is one of the most significant problems is most designs, coupling. If the coupling is not managed it can lead to serious glitches that may be sporadic. Understanding how to calculate and mange it is essential to having good design practices in place.

9-Impedance Control & Reflections

Another big problem is impedance mismatch. Signals can see unexpected impedance changes that lead to reflections back toward the driver causing false triggering, or even excess coupling. Good design practices must include the knowledge about impedance control.

10- RF & Analog Design Considerations

The majority of today's designs require the use of both digital and analog, therefore making it very important the designer understand the issues faced when implementing analog circuitry. Analog is more sensitive in many ways than digital. In this section material discussion will present loss tangent, material characteristics, skin effects, and circuit noise sources.

11-Terminators & Buses

There are many choices in how to design buses and terminate signal lines. If not properly designed they do not work. Learn how to design buses and when and how to terminate, and what to do when terminating is not possible such as in large complex BGA's.

12-Noise Margins & Budgets

Learn what the noise margins are and how to calculate them for your design. Unless you learn how to calculate the margins the noise when compiled may exceed the budget and lead to sporadic and non-operational designs.

13-EMI

Electro0magentic interference is very difficult to get rid of and must be carefully considered and reduced in the design. Learn where EMI comes from and how to prevent or reduce it.

14-Setting Up Design Rules

Each design may require its own set of design rules. Do not fall into the pattern where all designs fit one set of rules. That may not be correct and leads to faulty designs.

15-Design Preparation & Documentation

In high speed you do not design for the perfect system, but one that will properly operate by managing and containing the noise sources. Learn which nets that are more critical and need to be designed with care.

During design keeping up with documentation is sometimes hard. But it is very important and needs to be up to par or else later when production starts or changes are required the lack of it will show up. Included is a checklist that can prove to be of tremendous value to organize and approach your next high speed design.