Signal Integrity Analysis

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Signal Integrity

What do you mean by Signal Integrity? At what point does Signal Integrity become a problem?

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SIGNAL INTEGRITY ANALYSIS

Signal Integrity means quality of signal throughout the transmission line When the rise time or fall time decreases to the point where the parasitic inductances and capacitances on the board begin to result in noise signal and transients

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Parasitic element of Transmission line

There are basically three parasitic element of transmission line: 1. Resistor 2. Capacitor 3. Inductor

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Two more obvious and common ways a signal can lose integrity is

When it becomes distorted When the signal to noise ratio begins to degrade quality of signal.

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In general, Signal integrity problems on circuit boards fall into four areas, all of which are related to rise time of signal.

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Transmission Line Fundamentals

In general communication model there is (A) sender of that communication, (B) Message that is being sent, (C) The media over which the message is being sent, and (D) The receiver of the message.

Now on PCB, The sender is driver circuit, the message is typically the change in state from a high to low or from a low to a high signal, the media is the PCB trace and the 7/21/12 receiver is the receiving circuit.

Transmission Line Lumped Model

So, what make transmission line so special?

Consider a long, straight wire or trace with its return wire or trace nearby. The wire has some inductance along its length and some capacitive coupling between the wire and its return path. Fig shows what we call a lumped model of the wire pair.

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Fundamentals of Transmission line

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Fundamentals of Transmission line

As a PCB design engineer, keep in mind two things.

We need to make our traces look like transmission lines. We need to terminate them in their characteristic impedances, Zo.

There are certain types of transmission lines that are commonly used around us every day like as.

The coaxial cable leading to our cable TV is a 75 ohm transmission line. 10Base2 coaxial cable for networking, that is a 50 ohm transmission line.

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Reflection Co efficient of transmission line

If we have use controlled impedance traces, at least two things might still cause a reflection in the system;

An impedance discontinuity along the line, and An improper termination.

Any change in geometry or in the dielectric coefficient, will cause a change in the characteristic impedance of the line at that point. That may cause a reflection at that point. The magnitude of the reflection is determined by a measure we call the reflection coefficient, o. In the case of a single, parallel terminating resistor at the far end of the trace, the voltage reflection coefficient is defined as

o = (RL-Zo)/(RL+Zo)
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where RL is the terminating, or load, resistor

Uniform Transmission Lines

When the cross section is the same down the length, as in a coax cable, the transmission line is called uniform

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Uniform Transmission Lines

When the cross section is the same down the length, as in a coax cable, the transmission line is called uniform uniform transmission lines are also called controlled impedance lines Reflections will be minimized and signal quality optimized, if the transmission lines are uniform, or have controlled impedance All high-speed interconnects should be designed as uniform transmission lines. Non-uniform transmission lines exist when some geometry or material property changes as we move down the length of the line For example, if the spacing between two wires is not controlled but varies, this is a non-uniform line.

Whether the transmission line is uniform or nonuniform, it 7/21/12

Ideal Distortionless, Lossless Transmission Line

An ideal transmission line consists of two perfect conductors and these conductors should have zero resistance and uniform cross section and extend forever. There are two types of transmission line (1) Balanced (Twisted Pair) and (2) Single-ended or Unbalanced (Coax, Microstrip and stripline). In a balanced transmission line, signal current flows out along one wire and back along the other. In a single-ended transmission line, signal current flows in signal wire and back along a ground connection. Ideal transmission line should have following three property.

1. Infinite in extend it starts here and goes forever in one direction 2. Signals propagating on the line are not distorted as 7/21/12

Propagation Delay OR Transmission velocity

The amount of delay in signal propagation per unit length along a transmission line is called propagation delay. Unit : Picoseconds/inch. Propagation velocity and transmission velocity both are inverse of propagation delay. There is three different method to measure propagation delay along transmission line. Some reference material rate transmission velocity in percent, where 100% is the velocity of light in a vacuum. The velocity of light in vaccum is 3 X 10E8 m/s or 0.0118 inch/Ps or a delay of 84.7ps/inch. For example, RG-58/U, a relative velocity of 66% would give a longer delay per inch, equal to Delay (ps/in) = 84.7 / 0.66 = 128ps/inch

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Propagation Delay OR Transmission velocity

2nd Method : The propagation delay of any transmission line is related to its series inductance per unit length and its parallel capacitance per unit length. In transmission line, these factors are both proportional to length, and their fine balance is responsible for the distortion less propagation of signals. Lets measure the capacitance and inductance of RG-58/U coaxial cable,

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Propagation Delay OR Transmission velocity to Electromagnetic wave theory, The According

propagation delay is equal to

The speed of a signal depends on the materials that surround the conductors and how quickly the changing electric and magnetic fields associated with the signal can build up and propagate in the space around the transmission line conductors. The signal, after all, is a voltage difference between the signal path and the return path. As the signal propagates, a voltage difference must be created between the two conductors.

Accompanying the voltage difference is an electric field between the conductors and the current loop moving 7/21/12 through the conductors will produce a magnetic field.

Propagation Delay OR Transmission velocity

How quickly the electric and magnetic fields can build up is what really determines the speed of the signal. The propagation and interaction of these fields is described by Maxwell's Equations These say that if the electric and magnetic fields ever change, the kink they make will propagate outward at a speed that depends on some constants and material properties The speed of the change, or the kink, v, is given by:

where: 0 = permittivity of free space = 8.89 x 1012 F/m

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r = relative dielectric constant of the material

Propagation Delay OR Transmission velocity

The propagation delay per inch for printed circuit board traces depends on both the dielectric constant of the printed circuit board material and the trace geometry. Trace geometry determines whether the electric field stay in the board or goes into the air. When the electric field stays in the board, the effective dielectric constant is bigger and signals propagate more slowly. Propagation delay of electromagnetic fields in various media.

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Setup and Hold time

The Concept of Setup and Hold Time can be best understood with the picture shown below.

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Setup and Hold time

Set up time is the amount of time before the clock edge that the input signal needs to be stable to guarantee it is accepted properly on the clock edge Hold time is the amount of time after the clock edge that same input signal has to be held before changing it to make sure it is sensed properly at the clock edge. Setup and Hold times are vigorously (strongly) simulated at the Chip design level to ensure that they meet the specification. As PCB designers, we will be required to match the flight time between a set of signals

Problem : IC A is the source of a Clock and a Data Signal. The IC B is the destination of the Clock and the data signal. The Clock signal is routed all on outer signal and has a length of 12 inches. The Data signal is all routed on the inner signal. Find the length of the Data Signal to 7/21/12 the flight time of clock signal. Assume propagation match

Points to be remember:

Signal Integrity means quality of signal throughout the transmission line Signal Integrity becomes a problem, When the rise time or fall time decreases to the point where the parasitic inductances and capacitances on the board begin to result in noise signal and transients The wire has some inductance along its length and some capacitive coupling between the wire and its return path We need to make our traces look like transmission lines. We need to terminate them in their characteristic impedances, Zo. cause a reflection in the system; An impedance discontinuity along the line, and

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An improper termination

The value of the reflection coefficient can range between

Thank you

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