From DC to AC - Power Integrity and Decoupling Primer for PCB Designers

Supply voltages decrease with every new silicon generation, contributing as well to the goal of reducing power consumption of our electronics. Coupled with the resulting shrinking noise margins for... [more]

Reverse Engineering PCBs: How to Recreate a Lost Design

Maintaining a product is very difficult when: The source files aren’t available Only Gerber files and maintenance documents are available Making a revision to a company-owned product with no... [more]

PC Board Grounding to Control Noise, EMI and Signal Integrity

When time-varying (AC) signals travel in the transmission lines of a board, state-changing electric and magnetic fields are present. These fields, when not controlled, are the source of noise and... [more]

Does a Differential Pair Need a Return Plane?

A differential pair is any two transmission lines. When each transmission line has a return plane, its pretty clear how the differential impedance is related to the geometry. But what if there is no... [more]