Happy Thoughts -- Happy Holden

By Happy Holden
HDI's Improvement of Signal Integrity

In these troubling times, most companies have redoubled their efforts at new product creation.
Design services and quick-turn facilities report that they are filling up. This is good news! Now is
the time to look into using microvias and HDI for those new products. This next series of
columns will focus on how HDI can significantly improve the electrical performance of
electronics, and how it solves a number of signal integrity problems. This is an important
message for printed circuit people to carry to electrical engineers and circuit designers. The
electrical issues can be presented simply enough for everyone to understand. But first, let's
recap all the advantages of HDI.

Why Use Microvias in PCBs?

From a physical and electrical

standpoint, microvias offer
several distinct advantages over
their mechanically created
counterparts. Systems with
higher circuit densities and
better electrical performance
can be created using the
smallest and most advanced
components available. As a
result, smaller, lighter and more
robust products can be built. [1]

Figure 1. Benefits of HDI come from five major areas.

The major benefits are:

Lower costs through board size reduction (easily up to 40%) and layer elimination (up to
33%)
Product size reduction---Lower substrate weight, thickness and volume
Increased wiring density---Closer component spacing with more connections per
component
Higher density at a lower cost---At higher densities, HDI cost less per connection
Improved reliability---The thin nature and 1:1 aspect ratio of microvias deliver increased
reliability over larger drilled through holes
Improved electrical performance (signal integrity)---HDI has one-tenth the parasitics,
inductance, and capacitance of through holes, fewer stubs, less reflections, less ground

bounce and better noise margins

Lower RFI/EMI---Since ground planes are closer or on the surface, and distributed
capacitance is available, RFI/EMI is significantly reduced
Improved thermal efficiency---the thin dielectrics and higher Tgs of HDI improves
thermal performance
Greater design efficiency---Microvias allow ease of part placement on both sides of an
assembly, as well as improved component escape routing (via-in-pad)
Faster time-to-market: 100% completion by HDI auto-routers because of placement and
easier inner layer free space routing.

Signal Integrity and Electrical Performance

I am certainly not a signal integrity expert. The information I will present here has been
presented before by experts such as Dr. Eric Bogatin of GigaTest Labs [2] and Dr. Paul Franzon
of NC State University [3]. These experts have done a very good job in training me, and I hope
that my explanations here do them justice. Just in case I happen to be slightly off, you can
download several excellent papers by Dr. Bogatin at his Web site: www.GigaTest.com.
Signal integrity improvements are certainly available to all who take the time to respect Mother
Nature. HDI's contribution comes mainly from the adage, "Smaller and Closer is Better!" HDI's
main contribution is miniaturization! The signal integrity improvements for HDI comes from three
phenomena: 1) reduction of noise, 2) EMI radiation reduction, and 3) improved signal
propagation and lower attenuation.

Noise

There are really only four

different categories of noise that
all the various effects can be
described by [2]:

Signal quality of one net

and its return path
(ringing due to
reflections)
Cross-talk between two
or more nets (noise
pulses due to switching
on neighboring lines)
Rail collapse (noise on
power and ground
lines/planes)
ElectroMagnetic Interference (EMI)

Dr. Bogatin provides a simple illustration of this in Figure 2.

Noise can come from many sources, many created by the layout of the board: change in trace
width, plane splits, cutouts in power/ground planes, via antipads, insufficient plane capabilities,
excessive stubs, branched or bifurcated traces, component lead frames, improper impedance
matching and termination networks, coupling between signals, and varying loads and logic
families.
All signal integrity problems can be grouped in four families. Each one has specific causes. By
identifying the cause of each family of problems, design and technology based solutions can be
identified and implemented.

The HDI features that help

reduce noise are shown in
Table 1.
Continued in the next column
will be explanations of how HDI
improves: 1) Signal Quality of
One Net, 2) Crosstalk Noise, 3)
Rail Collapse and the Voltage Rails, 4) Via-in-pad and short via lengths, and 5) Power/Ground
Distribution.

References
1 Holden, Happy, "Introduction to High Density Interconnection Substrates and Microvia Technologies." The Board Authorit
y, April 2000, pps. 8-12.

2 Bogatin, Eric, "Signal Integrity and HDI Substrates,"The Board Authority,/I>, June 1999, pps. 22-26. (a PDF copy is
available for download at www.GigaTest.com).

3 Franzon, Paul, "Electrical Modeling, Simulation and Design of Interconnects," Vol. 1. Design, A short course by NC State
Univ. Nov. 8-11, 1998.

4 Charbonneau, Richard, "A Comparison of Through Hole and Microvias in Printed Circuit Design,"The Board Authority,
June 1999, pps. 88-94.

Happy Holden is manager of advanced technologies for Westwood Associates (West

Haven, CT). He is responsible for next-generation printed circuit manufacturing
technologies, advanced design tools, and design consulting. Prior to joining
Westwood, he was a consultant with TechLead Corporation, and had been at HewlettPackard for over 27 years. Holden formally managed Hewlett Packard's application
organizations in the Far East and holds degrees in Chemical Engineering and
Computer Science. If you have questions, he can be contacted via e-mail at
hth@westwd.com.

Kilde:

Artikel fra januar 2002 (Happy Holden)

www.circuitree.com