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It's a fact, the older I get, the dumber I become. I came to that realization while thinking about this eternal question engineers have about placement of high speed DC blocking caps in serial link channels. A few years ago I would have been able to recite the pros and cons without hesitation, but now, after playing manager for a few years, before I answer I have to pause and think about it. Fortunately the answer comes back quickly and I can still sleep at night. I find this topic interesting for a few reasons; one, it's a very practical issue found in almost every high speed design, and second, and perhaps more importantly, it's one of those topics were intuition might lead you the wrong way.

Wondering what IBIS Open Forum actually does? Mike LaBonte lifts the curtain and invites you to learn more about IBIS models.

Not an official award, per se, but Eric Bogatin gives his top pick for his favorite demo at the recent EMC event in Washington DC.

Measuring sub-milliOhms is difficult.  Getting low noise, sub-milliOhm measurements in very small circuits is a bit more difficult.  We recently had the opportunity to support R&D Altanova in performing this difficult measurement, here are some of the results.

Traditional swept-tuned EMI spectrum analyzers and step-tuned EMI receivers may produce misleading or entirely false measurement results when the signal under study is not steady state, but transient. See Eric Bogatin's review of a demo by Lee Hill on this subject.

The 60^th IEEE EMC SI/PI Symposium took place August 7-11 at National Harbor in Washington DC with the “plan to inspire, envision, and innovate.” The keynote set the stage for this plan as Julius Knapp, FCC Chief of the Office of Engineering and Technology, discussed the status of the FCC and industry EMC standards, the equipment authorization program and enforcement as the wireless space becomes more and more crowded with emerging technologies such as IoT, connected/autonomous vehicles, UAVs, increased satellite broadband and 5G taking off.

Printed circuits for high-speed and high-frequency applications rely on fine-featured transmission lines for signal transmission. Ideally, the loss through these transmission lines is minimal, and this requires an electrical impedance that is consistent and without interruptions, and with a value most appropriate for the types of signals to be transferred through the circuit. However, a number of factors can affect the impedance of a PCB, including the physical and electrical characteristics of the circuit and circuit material, but by reviewing and better understanding these variables, their effects can be minimized.

Ground is NOT a current return path. Read on to see Todd Hubing’s four rules of effective grounding strategy.

Read Eric’s suggestions on measured voltage noise and download a free sample of Eric and Larry’s new PDN Design book.