Fundamentals

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Successfully designing a PCB with more than one impedance while maintaining a manufacturable and economical product can be a difficult challenge. By examining the histories and uses of various impedances, Lee Ritchey simplifies the process and discusses the ideal impedance for PCB stackup design.

In a tribute to Bob Pease, David Banas explores the concept of unbounded jitter and how it aligns with the concerns of engineers and link designers. In his discussion of the definition, constituents, and practical limits of jitter, Banas embodies the simplistic approach of his hero. 

Modeling and measurement of digital serial interconnects is usually done in the frequency domain. That means that the minimal and maximal frequencies (or bandwidth) should be defined even before the analysis or measurement begins. This post introduces a simple and practical way to identify the bandwidth with a numerical analysis of defects in a single bit (SBR) or single symbol response (SSR).

This fundamentals piece looks at the digital applications of a coax cable, such as in testing USB4 implementations, with a focus on one pair of coax cables to highlight measuring some of their digitally oriented parameters not always considered on an RF based datasheet. 

Ever wonder how much energy is required to transmit data and why so much power is dissipated into heat? SIJ EAB member Yuriy Shlepnev takes a closer look.

Understanding a few simple power integrity (PI) fundamentals can go a long way towards increasing design margins when delivering power to high-speed digital loads. In this piece, Heidi Barnes provides some fundamental lessons on impedance.

Stefaan Sercu, Samtec Signal Integrity R&D Engineer, recently presented “Impedance Corrected De-Embedding,” which discussed the advantages of impedance corrected de-embedding over standard 2X through de-embedding, here are some highlights of his talk.

The most notable difference between DDR5 and previous generations is the introduction of decision feedback equalization, a technique used in serial link systems to improve the integrity of received signals.  In the wake of the new technology, this short article outlines some of the fundamental signal integrity concepts in the context of DDR5.

The extension of operating frequencies in the mmWave region and beyond is the story of wireless development for the next thirty years. Understanding the resulting challenges and improving the state-of-the-art is a key driver for the EMC and wireless Industries. This article takes a look at some of the fundamentals of mmWave, including signal propagation, available spectrum, and challenges and issues facing EMC.

Component manufacturers continue to develop increasingly miniaturized bulkhead filter capacitors that also offer increased current capacity, voltage, and operating temperature ranges. This post looks at the details of this miniaturization in order to help aerospace systems designers satisfy stringent size and weight constraints and further improve system performance.