Hi, Gurus, Sorry to my ambiguity ASCII code in the previous message. I try to send the mail again. The capacitance of via was usually estimated by the formula as below C =3D 1.41 epsilon_r * T * D1 / (D2 =A1VD1). The definition of T is the total thickness of PCB by refering Dr. Johnson's black magic bible. It seems like that the formula implied the capacitance is formed by plate capacitor where the area is constructed by the conducted via body and space is (D2- D1)/2. Is it reasonable for a multi-layer PCB structure? In my opinion, the only effective thickness is the total thickness of pwr/gnd plane which the via passing through. Therefore, I think the estimation of capacitance is over-estimate. The full wave analysis results, such as HFSS, also presented the characteristic of via is inductive dominantly. That is said, via did not have such large capacitance inherently. Besides, we also ! tried to estimate the excess propagation time when the signal traveling through via. Two cases are under onsideration as below. The test vehicle is a 4-layer PCB. Case I (TOP) ==== ====== || || || || =============================================== (Bottom) Case II (Top) ==== =============== ====== || || || || || || || || ================= ================== (Bottom) Case I consists of two vias for layer change and Case II has four vias. The total trace length is same to each other. The propagation time was measured by TDT. The excess propagation time caused by via can be obtained by subtracting with the propagation delay of microstrip in equal length. The excess propagation time per unit via for Case II is obviously faster in a factor of 60% than Case I as well. Does any one meet this phenomenon before? It is suspect that is the result of via coupling. I hope any expert can give me a reasonable explanation on this phenomenon. Thank you in advance. Sogo Hsu, Ph. D. Foxconn Electronic ------------------------------------------------------------------ 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 FAQ wiki page is located at: http://si-list.org/wiki/wiki.pl 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