Steve: You (and Lee) are absolutely correct that techniques have changed (for the better), and indeed a "buried microstrip" will reduce the radiated emissions relative to a surface microstrip. I also use that technique when appropriate. The tests I referred to only had a soldermask thickness of ~3 mils, but the relative dielectric constant was ~5.5. The present day soldermasks tend to fall in the 1.5-2.0 mil thickness and have an Er value of ~3.5, which would worsen the test results I obtained for surface microstrips. Equally important is the placement of surface high-speed traces in-board of the PCB edges. As much as 20 dB reduction in emissions can be achieved relative to traces very near (<50 mils) to the PCB edges. My tests were of traces in-board by more than 500 mils; therefore, the results would have been far worse for traces near the PCB edges. Note that these not so obvious details are critical to achieving acceptable performance as Lee has reported. Again, my concern is that less experienced designers will ignore the radiation potential of surface traces and fail to meet regulatory requirements without a respin of the PCB. Mike Michael L. Conn Owner/Principal Consultant Mikon Consulting *** Serving Your Needs with Technical Excellence *** ------------------------------------------------------------------ To unsubscribe from si-list: si-list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field or to administer your membership from a web page, go to: //www.freelists.org/webpage/si-list For help: si-list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'help' in the Subject field List technical documents are available at: http://www.si-list.org List archives are viewable at: //www.freelists.org/archives/si-list or at our remote archives: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/si-list/messages Old (prior to June 6, 2001) list archives are viewable at: http://www.qsl.net/wb6tpu