Signal Integrity Characterization Techniques

Description

Today’s emerging high-speed digital applications require a special kind of design engineer who understands the subtle signal integrity issues at hand. Although a classical electrical and computer engineering education is helpful, it is the high-frequency microwave effects that normally cause the most problems within telecommunications and computer systems, channels, and components. Reflections from impedance discontinuities, crosstalk, intra-line skew, and a multitude of other problems can immediately stop a system from working properly. Clearly, there is a gap in the college electrical engineering courses between the traditional digital and microwave curricula. This is why learning never stops for signal integrity engineers. This book addresses this gap with a focus on a practical and intuitive understanding of signal integrity effects within the data transmission channel. High-speed interconnects such as connectors, printed circuit boards (PCBs), cables, integrated circuit (IC) packages, and backplanes are critical elements of differential channels that must be designed using today’s most powerful analysis and characterization tools. Both measurements and simulation must be done on the device under test, and both activities must yield data that correlates with each other. Most of this book focuses on real-world applications of signal integrity measurements. Part I: Getting Started: Introducing TDR and VNA Techniques and the Power of S-Parameters Part II: Backplane Measurements and Analysis Part III: Assuring Quality Measurements: Probing and De-Embedding Part IV: Jitter and Active Signal Analysis Part V: Analysis of New Technologies Part VI: Future Technology Trends