Items Tagged with 'Copper'

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The Reports of Copper’s Death May Be Exaggerated

About 150 years ago the first stable transatlantic cable was laid and messages were sent between Ireland and Newfound­land over copper. The data rate on this cable was not even 1 bit/sec, it was 0.1 bit/sec. Concerns over the cable reliabil­ity and the slow data rate led some to believe copper was doomed as a communication media for these long cables.


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Stackup Beware: Case Study of the Effects on Transmission Line Losses Due to Mixed Reference Plane Roughness

Designing the right PCB stackup can make or break product performance. If the product has circuitry that is impedance and transmission loss sensitive, then paying attention to conductor surface roughness is paramount. Sometimes, however, the roughness of adjacent reference plane(s) is overlooked. If the adjacent high-speed signal layer uses smoother copper than one or both reference planes, a higher insertion loss than expected for that layer will occur and possibly cause a product to fail compliance. So, how is this determined before finalizing the stackup? Read on to find out.


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SIJ EXECUTIVE INTERVIEW_

Executive Q&A: Jairo Guerrero, Molex

What are the greatest technical challenges facing connector designs for future high-speed deployments?Jairo Guerrero of Molex delves into the technical challenges for today’s connectors, the influence of applications such as automotive and data/telecom, and he gives an intriguing glimpse into the product development process at Molex.


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