Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1500943
14 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I JUNE 2023 der joint, cracked components (large ceramic caps), and inability to rework the product if there's a bad part. On top of it all, documentation that works. e less communication you have to individu- ally attend to the better. e buttons in your soware don't work unless you set them up properly. Know how to communicate with your manufacturers. What information do they need to make their job easier. ey will reward you for that. Dan Beeker NXP Semiconductor What is your main concern for PCB designers? e focus must be on the dielectric, and the impact of the transmission line on the move- ment of the energy. A few critical pieces of information are needed to ensure success. You must know the switching speed of the driver. at frequency, and the resulting wavefront, tell you what you need to know about the requirements for the PCB design. Based on this data point, you know what impedance will be required for the output transmission line (do I need to control it?) and where to put the first capacitor that supplies the driver. Aer that, you need to know how much energy the device requires to function, which tells you what the impedance of the PDN must be. If you design your PCB based on these facts, your chances of success increase significantly. Key Facts • Electromagnetic fields travel in the space between the conductors, not in the conductors. • All energy is moved by wave action. • e transistors' switching speed determines the operation frequency, not the clock rate. • Signal and power connections must be one dielectric from ground for their entire length (including layer transitions). What issue should PCB designers be more aware of? It is simply the need to understand basic sci- ence. is should drive the underlying philoso- phy for the board design. e focus must be on designing the spaces where the energy is mov- ing. e copper structures, foil layers, and vias are used to define the spaces, or more properly, the waveguides on the PCB. e two-dimen- sional approach that is most commonly used must be redefined into a three-dimensional structure. Each signal or power conductor is only one part of a three-piece structure. e three elements needed to control the field must be present to achieve good signal integrity and EMC. The Rules of Triplets • You only need three components to use to contain EM energy: Conductor, spaces (dielectric), conductors. • You only get three components to use to build electronic systems: Conductors, spaces (dielectric), switches. • You can only do three things with electromagnetic field energy: Store it, move it, or convert it to kinetic energy. Dan Beeker