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A TDR (time domain reflectometer) is an instrument that probably has the fastest rise time of any instrument in your lab, but how accurate is it? Eric tests accuracy using a DC Ohmmeter in this piece.

There was a time when the signal integrity of connections between digital ICs could be nearly ensured by following one simple rule: don’t connect more than some maximum number of input pins to any single output pin. Often the fanout limit would be around 7. No models, no simulations. Everything we needed was in the thick books of vendor datasheets that filled our shelves, the tree-killing viral precursor to AOL installation CDs. Ah, those were the days!

I received a demo version of a new quick and easy TDR. I decided to take it for a test drive by measuring all the cables I had lying around my lab. The results were surprising!

If performance matters, if the interconnects are not transparent, or if you want to develop good habits, you will want to incorporate these seven habits in your next two layer board design.

A micromodule device resembles a surface mount IC; however, they include all the necessary support components that would normally be used to construct a power conversion circuit. This includes a DC/DC controller, MOSFET dice, magnetics, capacitors and resistors and so on, all mounted on a thermally efficient laminate substrate. They are then encapsulated using a plastic mold cap. The result was a complete power supply that can be simply adhered to a printed circuit board. Read about the evolution of this device.

Just because someone has a VNA capable of 60 GHz bandwidth doesn’t mean it will always give the same results. It is not the instrument, but the measurement procedure that seems to influence the quality of the measurements the most.  Read on for information on a recent study from Jason Ellison, Heidi Barnes, and Jose Moreira  as well as 7 tips for improving your measurements.

Get six experts in a room together and you are likely to hear seven different opinions. Not so at the Future of Power Integrity Panel Discussion at DesignCon 2019.  The consensus of this panel of experts is that the future of power integrity will include single processor chips drawing as much as 1000 A and more. Read on for the details of this discussion!

eSilicon was in the Samtec booth at DesignCon 2019 presenting their collaboration with Wild River Technology to develop an advanced test system that addresses the difficult signal integrity demands of 56/112G PAM4 operation. The test system design utilizes the upcoming IEEE P370 standard in association with compliance metrics 802.3bs, OIF CEI – 56G PAM4, and COBO to validate the required performance.

My aging vibration system started faulting. Shaking for 30 years takes a toll on a thing, after all. The system is pretty straightforward, just a big stack of audio amps and a controller. Much to my lab manager’s chagrin, I had been intentionally ignoring the warning signs.