An Intuitive Approach to Understanding Basic High-Speed Layout

What is a wire? At high speeds, it behaves very differently from what we were taught in college. This presentation on high-speed basics makes the subject intuitive in a way that’s easily understood.... [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]

Hair-Raising Footprint Horror Stories – and How to Avoid Them

When creating libraries, standards are crucial for maintaining consistency, accuracy, and reliability. Yet, even with rigid standards in place, mistakes inevitably creep into such a detail-oriented... [more]

Causes of Signal Degradation in PCB Transmission Lines

Signal degradation on PCB transmission lines manifests in many forms: undershoot, overshoot, ringing, pulse shape distortion, switching noise, attenuation, ground bounce, skew, etc. All these can be... [more]