Articles Tagged with ''Signal Integrity''

If you’ve just started on the path of designing high-speed serial links or have designed dozens of your own, Don Telian’s Signal Integrity in Practice is the book that will accelerate your engineering judgment and possibly save you from multiple design spins. Eric Bogatin takes a closer look at what he considers a must-have book for new and experienced engineers.

In earlier DDR systems, the clock, command, and address signals (here in referred to as C/A) were distributed to multiple DRAMs using a forked topology, in which these signals propagate to all the DRAMs in the system at approximately the same time. The propagation delays on the command and address lines (in such systems) introduced timing skew into the system, limiting the operating frequency of the bus and eventually impacting the performance of these memory systems.

As a closing gesture to the SI, PI, and EMC/EMI community, we want to leave all of you with a year-end holiday gift for your continued support.

“Over the years I’ve come to realize that, particularly in signal integrity, half-wave resonances are often the cause of ugly S-parameters. You can argue that any type of resonance would cause problems, and you would be right. However, half-wave resonances are easily formed in topologies.” This article summarizes observations from Gustavo Blando on the formation and mitigation of half-wave resonances, and includes an in-depth study on the topic in PDF format from the author.

Semiconductor ICs are the key components of complex electronic circuits. In countless technical applications, these small processing, control and memory components help master the great challenges of our time.

How well do statistical models predict the behavior of real-world systems?  How can we make predictions about the likeliness and severity of worst-case system behavior?  In this article, the authors explain how they used a function generator and oscilloscope to collect varying population sizes of measurement parameter results in order to investigate the accuracy of a statistical model's predictions.

SIJ technical editor Eric Bogatin reflects on reflections…“Do corners in traces on circuit boards cause reflections? Of course, they do. Do the reflections cause problems and should you worry? … It depends.” Read on to see what he means.

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.

Gustavo Blando, a Samtec signal integrity architect, recently presented “DC Block Capacitor Location (Does It Matter)?” at a Samtec geEEk and spEEk webinar. Here he presents a summary of some of his key points.

The principles underlying SI, PI, and EMC are not magic, and they are not about mysterious energy flows in the space between conductors. They are firmly rooted in the fundamental properties of electromagnetic fields, with a 160 year long rich history. Embrace it!