It is indeed unfortunate that the thickness of the dielectric is = controlled by the impedance control of the stripline in your resonance = planes where the image current flows. However, I am curious about how much of a differential mode return = current goes through that ground via ? Certainly not 100% of the common = mode current or that proportion amount of differential signal swing. EMI due to common mode current is a totally different issue. -----Original Message----- From: si-list-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:si-list-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Eric Bogatin Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2007 3:11 PM To: pritchard_jason@xxxxxxx; si-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [SI-LIST] Re: DDR2 2-slot design preference... Guys- I'll add two observations to this discussion on planes, vias and = resonances. I've been doing a lot of via design and simulation work with a 3D planar tool. I've had to re-adjust my intuition about the role of adjacent = return vias and noise injection into cavities. As previously noted, the efficiency of injecting noise into the plane to plane cavity is related to the impedance of the cavity, which, to first order is about the spacing between the planes. The thinner the = dielectric, the lower the impedance, and the less coupled energy driving the plane resonances. You get far more reduction in coupling to the cavity mode by thinner dielectric than by adding the return via. If the spacing between the = planes is thin, there is less vertical distance to couple between and the plane impedance is lower. In a large board, there will always be adjacent planes in the return = path with a large spacing and this is the pair where cavity resonances will = be excited. Secondly, having an adjacent return via does not suppress the coupling = into the cavity. It reduces it by maybe 50%, depending on the spacing to the signal via and its length. It is not enough to eliminate the noise = coupling into the plane to just have a return via adjacent to the signal via. You = may need a few. How many do you need? Of course, the answer is "it depends." The rule of thumb is best articulated by my good friend Frank Schonig = who says, "A lot is good, more is better and too much is just right." I = haven't done the analysis, but I suspect that the more coaxial the return via arrangement looks to the signal via, the less total inductance in the = return path and the less the radiated coupling into the plane to plane cavity resonance. Of course it is not practical to add 4 return vias around each signal = via, unless you are doing a very low density, high isolation board, like a = test board or a load board. Everything else is going to be a compromise.=20 If you are not going to do a detailed 3D planar simulation of the return plane stack up and the return via configuration to simulate how much insertion loss you loose into the planes, you will want to add design margin, like by adding vias along the edge, and multiple return vias in close proximity to the signal vias. Keep in mind that a return via is not an ideal short. It has a finite impedance. As a rough rule of thumb, its total inductance per length is about 10 pH/mil. If the return via is 100 mils long, it has 1 nH of = total inductance. At 1 GHz, this is an impedance of 6 Ohms. If you have 1 = return via per signal via, the ground bounce across it, which would be a = voltage source, injecting noise into the planes, would be about 10% of the = signal swing voltage. --eric ************************************** Dr. Eric Bogatin, President Bogatin Enterprises, LLC Setting the Standard for Signal Integrity Training 26235 w 110th terr Olathe, KS 66061 v: 913-393-1305 f: 913-393-0929 c:913-424-4333 e:eric@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx www.BeTheSignal.com=20 Spring 2008 Signal Integrity Training Institute EPSI, SIAA, BBDP April 7-11, 2008, San Jose, CA ****************************************=20 -----Original Message----- From: si-list-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:si-list-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] = On Behalf Of pritchard_jason@xxxxxxx Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2007 1:58 PM To: Chris.Cheng@xxxxxxxx; si-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [SI-LIST] Re: DDR2 2-slot design preference... Yes 1 ground via was placed directly next to each the signal vias on the test board. They were 100 ohm vias. Unfortunately it kept the impedance low at the edges of the via structure where the grounds were placed. You would need more ground vias to truly pin it down. We did one simulation with them taken out to show how it got worse.=3D20 I would imagine voltage planes are more often the culprit for resonances. They may be only used to supply power at one location on the board and then are routed to the rest of the design as a signal reference. These planes typically don't have capacitors placed across the whole design. If you did have capacitors across the whole design you may only have a limited frequency range in which that may be = effective.=3D20 -Jason -----Original Message----- From: Chris Cheng [mailto:Chris.Cheng@xxxxxxxx]=3D20 Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2007 2:40 PM To: pritchard, jason; si-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: RE: [SI-LIST] Re: DDR2 2-slot design preference... Before I started I have to say I am also a big fan of ground via stitching around edges of PCB. That said. In your experiment, did you provide ground return current vias near your differential pair transition via ? One can easily design an experiment where return current path is denied (no ground vias near the signal vias) and it is forced to return through plane coupling (i.e. to justify thin core capacitance planes) or your via stitching (to contain the large EMI radiation field). Neither is the correct solution to the problem which is lack of return current vias. Another thing to consider is in real live non-backplane PCB's, there are tens of thousands of ground vias by IC's and passive components sprinkled around the PCB, it will be hard to find a large piece of via-less plane to start your resonance. -----Original Message----- From: si-list-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:si-list-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of pritchard_jason@xxxxxxx Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2007 10:32 AM To: si-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [SI-LIST] Re: DDR2 2-slot design preference... I contributed to the paper, so I'll try and shed some light on what was in it... The purpose of the paper was to explain how high frequency energy can travel across a PCB and radiate from PCB edges or end up in areas you didn't expect it to be.=3D3D20 If you spend a little time in the lab taking EMI measurements then you will find out that if you take any board with high speed serial links with via transitions or stripline routing, and measure around the edge of the PCB you will almost always find energy there. The question I always had was, how did it get there? I have been doing SI for many years so I typically thought about problems in 2 dimensions. The problem with EMI is it's 3 dimensional. It is sometimes difficult to predict how energy will travel. The first step is knowing the mechanisms in which energy gets diverted and spread out across the PCB.=3D3D20 The first thing we did was set-up simple experiments in SI-Wave to try and figure out what was going on. We created simplified etch layouts of the real board that was having problems. We soon came to the conclusion that via transitions were exciting resonances on the PCB. What we determined was that the size of your reference plane and the resultant cavity resonances created between 2 planes caused energy to travel in the direction of the resonances when excited by via transitions. This loss of energy to the planes can also be seen in the s-parameters of the etch. That is essentially the first half of the paper.=3D3D20 We then went into the lab. The experiments were done on a backplane test board. It only had ground planes. We chose this board because it had SMA connections and allowed us the flexibility to apply whatever input we wanted. It also had the same etch/via structures of our problem board, and proves the point that it doesn't matter if its power or ground. All you need is 2 metal pieces to create a cavity resonator.=3D3D20 The simulations and lab measurements proved that you could predict where emissions would occur on a PCB. Did this experiment actually solve a real problem? Indirectly. Once we knew what mechanisms allowed energy to go to unwanted places on a PCB you can change the layout to accommodate this. One solution is to use via stitching along the edge of the PCB to reduce the impedance so that it cant radiate. This was implemented because the board slipped into metal clips at the edges of the PCB. If you can squelch the noise before it gets to the metal clips you can reduce the amount of energy directly coupled to the chassis. Another solution would be to make sure your return path impedance is very low along all of your high speed signals which is very difficult in high density boards.=3D3D20 You could consider via fencing along the edge of a PCB a "rule of thumb", but it's a useful one because I have yet to see anyone capable of looking at a PCB and tell me how the energy is going to travel across the PCB, couple, and radiate. This is not a 2D SI problem its 3D. Obviously you could put the work in and simulate it, but that is often time consuming and not available to most people.=3D3D20 We were going to present the REAL board results at design con in February but it wasn't in the cards this year.=3D3D20 I am not an EMI "guru". I just wanted to understand what is happening. Just because you haven't seen it doesn't mean it doesn't exist.=3D3D20 References:=3D3D20 * Reducing Simultaneous switching noise and emi on ground/power planes by dissipative edge termination. Istvan * EMI mitigation with multilayer Power Bus Stacks and via stitching of reference planes. Xiaoning ye, David M. Hockanson, Min Li,..... * Radiated Emission from a multilayer PCB with traces placed between power/ground planes. Takashi Harada, Hideki Sasaki, Toshihide Kuriyama * Reduction in radiated emission by symmetrical power-ground layer stack-up pcb no open edge. Satoru Haga, Ken Nakano, Osamu Hashimoto * The Radiation of a rectangular power bus structure at multiple cavity mode resonances. Marco Leone * Coupling of through hole signal via to power/ground references and excitation of edge radiation in multilayer PCB. Jun So Pak, Jingook Kim ..... -Jason This email and any attachments thereto may contain private, confidential, and privileged material for the sole use of the intended recipient. Any review, copying, or distribution of this email (or any attachments) by others is strictly prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender immediately and permanently delete the original and any copies of this email and any attachments thereto. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 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.net List archives are viewable at: =20 //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 =20 ------------------------------------------------------------------ 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.net List archives are viewable at: =20 //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 =20 This email and any attachments thereto may contain private, = confidential, and privileged material for the sole use of the intended = recipient. 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