Chapter 7

1. T-Lines have two very important parameters: a characteristic impedance and a time delay.
2. Many of the problems related to signal integrity are due to poorly designed return paths.
3. The return current will closely follow the signal current.
4. When a signal moves down a transmission line, it simultaneously uses the signal path and
the return path. Both conductors are equally important in determining how the signal
interacts with interconnect.
5. When one is different from the other, such as in a microstrip, we usually refer to the narrow
conductor as the signal path and the plane as the return path.
6. The signal is always the voltage difference between two adjacent points on the signal and
return paths.
7. As we will see, uniform transmission lines are also called controlled impedance lines.
8. A pair of leads in a dual in-line package (DIP) or quad flat pack (QFP) are non-uniform lines.
9. Adjacent traces in a connector are often non-uniform transmission lines.
10. Traces on a PCB that do not have a return-path plane are often non-uniform lines.
11. One of the goals in designing for optimized signal integrity is to design all interconnects as
uniform transmission lines and to minimize the length of all non-uniform transmission lines.
12. A coax cable is unbalanced since the center conductor is much smaller than the outer
conductor.
13. A coplanar line has two narrow strips side by side on the same layer and is balanced.
14. In general, for most transmission lines, the signal quality and cross-talk effects will be
completely unaffected by whether the line is balanced or unbalanced. However, ground-
bounce and EMI issues will be strongly affected by the specific geometry of the return path.
15. In fact, the speed of the electrons in a typical copper wire is actually about 10 billion times
slower than the speed of the signal.
16. An electron travels at a speed of about 1 cm/sec. This is about as fast as an ant scurries on
the ground.
17. The resistance of the wire has only a very small, almost irrelevant effect on the speed of a
signal in a transmission line. It is only in extreme cases that the resistance of an interconnect
affects the signal speed—and even then the effect is only very slight.
18. The speed of a signal depends on the materials that surround the conductors and how
quickly the changing electric and magnetic fields associated with the signal can build up and
propagate in the space around the transmission line conductors.
19. The signal, after all, is a propagating voltage difference between the signal path and the
return path. As the signal propagates, a voltage difference must be created between the two
conductors. Accompanying the voltage difference is an electric field between the
conductors. In addition to the voltage, a current must be flowing in the signal conductor and
in the return conductor to provide the charge that charges up the conductors that generates
the voltage difference that creates the electric field. This current loop moving through the
conductors will produce a magnetic field.
20. A signal can be launched into a transmission line simply by touching the leads of a battery to
the signal and return paths. The sudden voltage change creates a sudden electric and
magnetic-field change. This kink of field will propagate through the dielectric material
surrounding the transmission line at the speed of a changing electric and magnetic field,
which is the speed of light in the material.
21. For the signals typically found in high-speed digital products, the frequency is about 1–10
GHz.
22. In air, where the relative dielectric constant and relative permeability are both 1, the speed
of light is about 12 inches/nsec. This is a really good rule of thumb to keep in mind. (Devided
by square root of Er*Ur in material, Ur = 1). It is possible in some materials for the dielectric
constant to vary with frequency. In other words, the speed of light in a material may be
frequency dependent. We call this property dispersion, a frequency dependence to the
speed of light in the material. In general, dielectric constant decreases with higher
frequency. This makes the speed of light in the material increase as we go toward higher
frequency. In most applications, dispersion is very small and can be ignored.
23. Most interconnect laminate materials have a dielectric constant of about 4. A good rule of
thumb to remember is that the speed of light in most interconnects is about 12
inches/nsec/sqrt (4) = 6 inches/nsec. When evaluating the speed of signals in a board-level
interconnect, we can assume that they travel at about 6 inches/nsec.
24. When the field lines see a combination of dielectric materials, as in a microstrip where there
are some field lines in the bulk material and some in the air above, the effective dielectric
constant that affects the signal speed is a combination of the different materials. The only
way to predict the effective dielectric constant when the materials are inhomogeneous
throughout the cross section is with a 2D field solver.
25. In the case of stripline, for example, all the fields see the same material, and the effective
dielectric constant is the bulk dielectric constant.
26. The time delay, TD, and length of an interconnect are related by: TD = Len/v
27. This means that to travel down a 6-inch length of interconnect in FR4, for example, the time
delay is about 6 inches/6 inches/nsec, or about 1 nsec. To travel 12 inches takes about 2
nsec.
28. The wiring delay, the number of psec of delay per inch of interconnect, is also a useful
metric. It is just the inverse of the velocity.
29. The length of the rise time, Len, on the transmission line depends on the speed of the signal
and the rise time: Len = RT*v
30. For example, if the speed is 6 inches/nsec and the rise time is 1 nsec, the spatial extent of
the leading edge is 1 nsec × 6 inches/nsec = 6 inches. As the leading edge moves down the
circuit board, it is really a 6-inch section of rising voltage moving down the board. A rise time
of 0.1 nsec has a spatial extent of 0.6 inch.
31. Many of the signal-integrity problems related to imperfections in the transmission line
depend on the relative size of the discontinuity compared to the spatial extent of the leading
edge. It is always a good idea to be aware of the spatial extent of the leading edge for all
signals.
32. All a signal cares about is how fast it moves down the line and what impedance it sees. As
we saw previously, speed is based on the material properties of the dielectric and their
distribution.
33. All a signal cares about is how fast it moves down the line and what impedance it sees. As
we saw previously, speed is based on the material properties of the dielectric and their
distribution.
34. From the signal’s perspective, as we walk down the line at our speed of 1 foot/nsec, we are
charging up each foot of line in the same amount of time. Coming out of the bottom of our
foot is the charge that is added to the line to charge it up. An equal charge out of our foot in
an equal time interval means we are injecting a constant current into the line.
35. If we are moving down the line at a constant speed, and if we increase the width of the
signal path, the capacitance we need to charge up will increase, and the charge that must
come out of our foot in the time we have till the next step will increase.