This document discusses the design of high performance printed circuit boards. It covers topics such as PCB design flow, mechanical design considerations, electrical considerations like impedance and noise, capacitor advantages and disadvantages, microstrip and signal trace configurations, cross-talk control techniques, termination methods, and guidelines for layout and EMI reduction. The goal is to minimize delays, noise, and reliability issues through careful mechanical and electrical design.

1. High Performance Printed
Circuit Boards
By Joseph Y. Lee
Samsung Electro-Mechanics

2. Chapter – 6
Design of
High Performance
Circuit Boards

3. PCB Design Flow
 Connectors, backplanes, and other interconnects –
potential of unwanted noise, delays, and reliability
problems.
 Slowest logic family can adequately meet worst-case
performance and timing goals
 Minimize layers should be considered
 Equivalent Integrated Circuit Count (EIC) technique
(??? – correlation factors for total layer count)
 Computer Aided Design (CAD)
 Rule violations should be avoided
 PCB process documented
 Fabricate prototype

4. Mechanical Design and PCB
Materials
 Printed circuit board sizes
 Board thickness
 Panel sizes (more than one PCB size)
 Mechanical partitioning (ex. space for components
and cable routing)
 Mechanical support
 Thermal analysis
 Mechanical Interface Control Drawing (relates the
mechanical chassis constraints to the board
connector constraints)
 PCB Materials (considerations – mechanical,
electrical, chemical, thermal)

5. Electrical Considerations
 Impedance – capacitance, resistance, and
inductance
 Cross talk; a phenomenon where a signal on
one line/trace is capacitively coupled to an
adjacent line/trace. It can be a form or noise.
 Heat; another form of noise – 1.5*kT
 Switching (on-off-on-off) noise; increases while
impedance decreases. Higher impedance MAY
solve problem.

6. More Electrical Considerations
1 volt
signal
Rise time - tr Fall time - tf
Propagation delay - tpd

7. Capacitors - advantages
 f   f  What is the use for a
2 capacitor?
V = 4kTR   Coth   ∆ f ≈ 4kTR ∆ f
R  f   f  1) traps noise
 z  z 
2) stores charge for
memory ex. DRAM
R
Voltage noise equation C What is noise?
from Dr. John Choma’s
lectures at USC

8. Capacitors - disadvantages
Tradeoff – capacitors slow propagation time
R R R R R
C C C C C
Propagation delay - tpd
tpd = 15 RC for 5 capacitors and 5 resistors

9. Capacitors have some noise too.
dielectric parasitic
resistor

10. What is noise margin?
VOH = 1 V
Logic 1
VIH = 0.8 V
Noise spike outside noise
margins
VIL = 0.2 V
Logic 0
VOL= 0 V
Noise tolerance is the degree to which a gate is impervious to
noise spikes at its input.

11. Microstrip configurations
w
t
h Dielectric
Reference plant
1. Lines on surface – easy to 1. Subject to physical damage
cut and jumpered.
2. Radiated emissions of 15dB
2. Higher impedance by
changing h. 3. Crosstalking problems.
3. Easily fabricated
4. Solder mask have negligible
effect on impedance

12. Embedded microstrip
1. Allows inclusion of second 1. Radiated emissions of
signal layer in addition to 15dB
surface microstrip.
2. Signal propagation slower
2. Helps when signal layers than surface
are required in a
constrained board
thickness.

13. Strip-line
1. Exhibit less cross-talk 1. Difficult to repair or rework
2. Better impedance control 2. Slower propagation time

14. Dual strip line
Reference plane
Reference plane
1. Maximizes interconnection 1. Results in very high layer to
density layer coupling.
2. Routed perpendicularly to 2. Impedance will be lower for
reduce cross talk. dual strip line signal trace
closer to reference plane
compared to strip line signal
trace in the center to the
reference plane.

15. Cross-talk
 Mutual capacitive and inductive b/t signal
lines produces cross-talk.
 Moving ground plane closer to signal lines
reduces cross-talk.
 Forward cross-talk (IL - IC) – normally opposite
of signal source
 Backward cross-talk (IC + IL) – same as signal
course, twice the line delay (worst case)

16. Cross-talk control
 Full or partial termination reduce cross-talk amplitudes.
 Signals must be routed orthogonally.
 Void parallel of high speed logic parallel to low level
analog circuits.
 Keep all buses physically separate from clocks and
strobes.
 Distance separation between critical traces must be
three times the width of the traces measured from
centerline to centerline.
 Thin traces reduce cross-talk.
 Separate traces at 2 mils/inch of trace length.
 Keep lines short!

17. Clock and strobe distribution
 Use point to point clock configurations.
 Centrally locate the clock drivers.
 Avoid branching.
 Make clocks, strobes, and control signals first
priority.
 Do not use the same buffer to drive on and off
the card simultaneously.
 Do not assign clocks of different frequencies
to the same clock driver package.

18. Series termination
 Series termination does not increase
power dissipation.
 Low state reflections are more
critical compared to high state
reflections.
 Must be lumped very close to the
end of the lines

19. Parallel termination
Purpose:
1. Reduces reflections from ends of the bus.
2. Provides high state pull-up for open collector
drivers.
3. Provides discharge path for the line when 3-state
devices are disabled.
4. Allows it to put a larger initial voltage step into
Signal line
the line on positive transitions.
Guidelines:
1. 0.1µF capacitors should be placed as close as
possible to Vcc pin.
2. Choose types that give access to the individual
resistor lead since they afford better grounding.

20. Parallel termination
 Signals travel relatively undistorted.
 Loading delay is about half that of
series termination.
 Helps to offset the driver versus line
voltage divider delay
 Higher power consumption.
 Higher cross-talk levels.
 Decreases the low level noise margins.

21. Differential signal topologies
Strip-line structure Dual strip-line structure
Odd-mode coupling Even-mode coupling Even-mode coupling
Odd-mode coupling
Coplanar differential structure Broadside differential structure
Even-mode coupling is for digital applications.

22. Coplanar vs. Broadside
 Odd mode coupling is easier to control with the strip
line approach than the dual-strip line.
 Less dielectric to achieve desired impedance for
coplaner.
 Dielectric loss is higher for broadside.
 Common-mode noise is rejected in the coplanar
approach while it is inherently introduced in the
broadside configuration.
 Vias are required for broadside to control common
mode noise.

23. Net layout guidelines
 Make critical signals first priority.
 Keep signal lines short.
 Use slowest logic family meeting timing requirements.
 Terminate transmission lines.
 Keep loading along distributed nets equal and well balanced.
 Avoid branching.
 Avoid driving on and off card simultaneously.
 Keep stubs off of transmission lines <2 inch.
 Proper grounding practices mandatory.
 When logic devices have risetimes of 1 ns or less, use 45° instead of
right anges in circuit paths.
 Avoid long test point circuit traces.
 Testability should also be considered.

24. Definitions
 Ground shifts; difference in ground current
 Backplane; A circuit board containing sockets into
which other circuit boards can be plugged in.
 EMI; Any electromagnetic disturbance that interrupts,
obstructs, or otherwise degrades or limits the effective
performance of electronics/electrical equipment.
R R R R R
Ig Ig Ig Ig Ig

25. Reducing ground shifts
 Do not use thermal relief “butterflies.”
 Use the appropriate connectors. Used as
many ground pins per connector.
 Logic cards that represent the heaviest current
drain should be located nearest the end where
the ground enters the backplane.
 Cards with the most single-ended logic
interconnects between them should be
assigned to slots as close together as
possible.
 Consider differential driving.

26. Multilayer power distribution
 Keep plane spacing as close as possible.
 Multiple 1-oz planes arranged in couplets are
recommended for distributing backplane power.
 Shorter pins will have less resistance.
 Stagger power/ground inputs on the backplane so as
to distribute power more evenly into the plane.
 Keep power supply as close as possible to the
backplane to minimize voltage drops in connecting
planes.
 2% maximum voltage drop from supplies to any circuit
device is recommended.
 Use additional planes to distribute auxiliary power in
the backplane.

27. Better design
Poor Backpanel Better Backpanel
+5 +5 G G G G +5 G +5 G
High speed RF currents exist on the edges of power planes
due to magnetic flux. Interplane coupling is called fringing.
Need to implement the “20-H” rule suggested by W. Michael
King. Assuming a separation of 6 mils between planes, 20XH
= 120 mils. Make the power plane 120 mils smaller than the
ground plane.

28. Types of capacitors
 NPO – “temperature compensating”
materials. Capacitance change +/- 0.3% from
-55 to +125°C.
 X7R – “temperature stable” Capacitance
change +/- 15% from -55 to +125°C.
 Z5U – “general purpose” provide highest
capacitance – very unstable under
environmental changes – small size, low ESL,
low ESR, and excellent frequency response.

29. EMI layout guidelines
 Use multilayer boards with dedicated power and
ground planes.
 Strip-lines reduced radiated emissions up to 15 dB.
 Auxiliary power or ground traces are required – keep
them as wide as possible to lower inductance and DC
resistance.
 Adequate decoupling reduces current inductive traces
and thus lowers emissions.
 Keep highest speed logic closer to the card connector.
 Keep signal traces as short as possible.
 If a noisy card is anticipated, use a strip-line approach.

30. 감사합니다