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In the GB/s regime, accurate modeling of conductor loss and phase delay is a precursor to successful high-speed serial link designs. In this paper, a practical method to model effective permittivity and phase delay, due to conductor surface roughness, is presented. By obtaining the dielectric and roughness parameters, solely from manufacturers’ data sheets, phase delay and effective permittivity can now be easily predicted. Detailed case studies and several examples test the model`s accuracy.

An efficient computational design optimization method, combining full-wave electromagnetic simulation in COMSOL Multiphysics® software with a space-mapping (SM) algorithm implemented in MATLAB® software. 

It is a well-known fact that electromagnetic radiation can be emitted from the edges of printed circuit boards (PCBs). When a current carrying via passes through two or more reference planes, an EM wave propagates radially away from the via within the cavity.  It is guided by the respective planes; much like a water ripple will propagate radially away from a rain drop hitting a puddle of water. When the wave meets the PCB edge, the two reference planes form a slot antenna and will radiate noise with the potential to generate electromagnetic interference (EMI) to nearby equipment.

As you know, "us", Signal and Power Integrity Engineers, are full of tricks, rules of thumb, and shortcuts. These tricks mostly help us understand something, save analysis time and, why not, make us look smarter than we really are!! In that vein, seldom have I encountered a quick and dirty trick as useful and underestimated as S-parameter renormalization.

The Spring semester is starting at the University of Colorado, Boulder and the next batch of graduate students are taking my signal integrity course. To encourage students to be on time, I use a carrot and a stick. The carrot is a joke of the day and the stick is a pop quiz that happens as soon as class starts.