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32 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I MAY 2023 Signal integrity (SI) grew out of the elec- tromagnetic compatibility discipline in the early 1990s and gradually became a hot topic in its own right. Although the term SI never appeared in the title, one of the first books on the topic was Introduction to Electromagnetic Compatibility by Clayton Paul. About a decade later, power integrity (PI) became the new hot topic, creating a separate discipline on which a multitude of books and conference sessions were based. SI was based on high-frequency RF and microwave knowledge, whereas PI tasks were handled primarily by AC/DC and DC/DC power supply designers, who preferred the low-frequency behavior of circuits. Although the basic rules and principles of physics apply to both SI and PI, the separate high-frequency and low-frequency considerations led to seem- ingly disconnected design rules. Take, for instance, three-dimensional (3D) effects, which we usually associate with high- frequency SI problems, where the full-wave solution of Maxwell equations becomes neces- sary. ey can happen when we analyze a right- angle turn in a PCB trace or look at the high- speed behavior of a plated through-hole. In SI, the full-wave effects become more notice- able at higher frequencies, where the physical dimensions are not negligibly smaller than the wavelength. Still, it may be surprising to learn that in PI, 3D effects can equally show up at very low fre- quencies, sometimes in the kHz region and even at DC. ese 3D effects are created by specific patterns and changes in the current 3D Effects in Power Distribution Networks Quiet Power by Istvan Novak, SAMTEC