Saturday, June 23, 2012

Manufacturer's Package Data

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

SMT Expert - Bob Willis Online

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Controlled Impedance

Mantaro Impedance Calculators  Java - PCB Related Calculations

Desktop Trace Impedance Calculator Links:
AWR TxLine 2003 (Free) Excellent Tool
Saturn PCB Toolkit (Free) - PCB Design Calculator
UltraCAD Design Inc.  (Free / Buy) - Douglas Brooks
ICD has a Stackup Calculator and Offers a 14 Day Evaluation

VIA Impedance:  
Designing Controlled-impedance Vias  Thomas Neu - Texas Instruments
The Poor Man’s PCB Via Modeling Methodology  Bert Simonovich's Design Notes

Including Tolerance in Mathcad Calculations

Electromagnetics Explained - PDF

Power Distribution System - Douglas Brooks

Power Distribution System - Douglas Brooks

EM Rectangular Cavity Modes Applet

EM Rectangular Cavity Modes Applet

Monday, June 4, 2012

Metric Stuff - Tom Hausherr


Tom has been a big contributor in the PCB Design Community. Tom has created many useful tables and written numerous excellent papers:

Inch to Metric Conversion Tables for PCB Design

PCB Mounting Holes

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Signal Integrity


Signal layers should always be adjacent to ground or power planes.

Signal layers should be tightly coupled to their adjacent planes.

Route traces orthogonally (at right angles) on adjacent layers.

Power and ground planes should be closely coupled together. Drilled Holes will effect the actual plane capacitance value.

Multiple-ground planes are very advantageous.

High speed signals should be routed on buried layers and located between planes.

When critical signals are routed on more than one layer they should be confined to the two layers adjacent to the same plane. If the two routing layers are not adjacent to the same plane, you should drop return path vias at each signal via in the routed path.

To Minimize Crosstalk in Single-Ended Traces (Not Diff Pairs):

Digital circuits with internal traces (Stripline Traces) should be separated by at least the distance to the nearest ground or power plane. For example if H=0.006" (0.15mm) then the traces should be separated by at least 0.006" (0.15mm).

Digital circuits with external traces (Microstrip Traces) should be separated by at least twice the distance to the nearest ground or power plane. For example if H=0.006" (0.15mm) then the traces should be separated by at least 0.012"(0.3mm).

The general rule of thumb to minimize crosstalk to 10% or less is as follows: 50 Ohm traces should be spaced as suggested in the stripline and microstrip examples shown above.

Basically, on FR4 keep 50 ohm lines separated at least one line width.

Use the 20H Power Plane Rule to Minimize Radiated EMI from the PCB edges:

The power plane should be pulled back from the edge of GND planes by a factor of 20 x the dielectric thickness between the power and ground planes. For example with a dielectric thickness of 4mils the power plane would be pulled in on all sides of the GND plane by 80mils (4x20). 

Signal Integrity Links:

Common Mode Ground Currents:
Common Mode Ground Currents  Dr. Howard Johnson

Crosstalk:
Crosstalk Modes   Power Point Slides - Intel
Crosstalk Explained  PDF - Douglas Brooks
Crosstalk Calculator  Web Calculator - EEWeb

Power Distribution Networks Design:

Discrete Components:

Phase Shifts:
Source of Phase Shift  ECE 209 - Wikipedia
Phase Difference Simulator  Jave Applet - Wikipedia

Thumb Rules:
  • To Maintain Cross Sectional area of a Controlled Impedance Route the VIA Diameter should Equal 1/3 Trace Width.
  • Via stitching of 1/10th wave length can suppress radiated signals approximatley 25dB.

Friday, June 1, 2012