Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1483624
74 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I NOVEMBER 2022 erate. is is leading us to create easy-to-use cloud-based tools. We're looking at not just up- porting our tools to a cloud environment, but rethinking our tools, and making them avail- able as a web-based application. ere's a lot happening not only technologically, but also economically, as these printed circuit board experts retire and move on. is trend is driv- ing what we're working on. Shaughnessy: What do you see at a macro level? We're officially in a recession, but some managers are saying, "If this is a recession, I'll take it." Clark: at's a very good question. With trends, you do your best analysis of what you're seeing and what you're hearing. I'm the finance guy, and I assumed that with COVID we would all see a slowdown in business. I thought demand would drop off, and we'd see some budgets re- evaluated and some dip in the business. But it never happened. 2020 and 2021 were record years for us, and 2022 is on record again for growth of over 10%. In 2023, we don't know what will happen. We were developing a very healthy business in Russia, for example, but that business is pretty much gone because of the circumstances there. Overall, all aspects of our products and our territories have seen growth, especially in the U.S. and China. Sometimes it seems that everything I learned in business school is out the window. Shaughnessy: I think a lot of other finance guys in this industry would agree with you. Great talking with you, Joe. Good to see you, Mark. Clark: Always a pleasure, Andy. DESIGN007 by Bill Hargin, Z-zero Chapter 3: Cutting Your Losses In this chapter, we'll briefly discuss signal loss as it relates to your stackup and a process you can use to select the best laminate for your application while avoiding under- or over-designing. For today's faster rise times in high-speed PCB applications, the lossy effects of transmission lines dramatically influence signal quality. As Figure 3.1 shows, these effects—both attenuation and rise- time degradation—vary directly with length at higher frequencies. Two important mechanisms that absorb energy from the signal need to be considered: dielectric loss and conductor loss caused by the "skin effect" and copper roughness. Dielectric Loss Dielectric loss increases with frequency, and with a material's loss tangent or dissipation fac- tor (Df ). Standard FR-4 materials are considered to be in the high-loss category, with loss tangents ranging from 0.02–0.03. For a higher price, lower loss materials are avail- able, with Df values for ultra-low loss and "extremely-low loss" materials currently trending below 0.0025 for several high-end laminate. Continue reading. BOOK EXCERPT The Printed Circuit Designer's Guide to... Stackups: The Design within the Design Figure 3.1: Rise-time degradation and attenuation (loss)for a lossless interconnect (orange), as well as lines of 10–40 in. through a lossy dielectric.