Course Description

This course introduces students to the physical phenomena that lead to signal degradation when generating and transmitting digital signals. The broadband response of transmission lines will be presented in addition to lumped versus distributed analysis. Emphasis is placed on the physical structures that are used to construct modern digital systems (on-chip Rx/Tx circuitry, on-chip interconnect, IC packaging, PCB's, connectors, and cables). The fabrication process for each component of the digital system will be presented in addition to the tradeoffs between mechanical reliability, cost, and electrical performance. Modern analysis tools will be used to explore these topics including SPICE circuit simulators, EM field solvers, and PCB design/layout software. Modern test equipment will also be presented including Time Domain Reflectrometry (TDR), Vector Network Analysis (VNA), and Jitter Characterization using Real-Time Digital Oscilloscopes. (Syllabus)

Students taking this course will be given the oppertunity to design and fabricate a real printed circuit board through Sunstone Circuits Inc.

Sunstone Circuits

www.sunstone.com

Textbook

"Signal and Power Integrity - Simplified" (Required)
Eric Bogatin
Prentice Hall PTR, 2nd Edition, 2009

Pre-Requisites

EELE 308 - Signals
EELE 334 - Electromagnetic Theory
EELE 371 - Intro to Microprocessor HW/SW

Lecture Notes

PCB Tutorial Videos (DxDesigner & PADS 9.5)

Tips on these videos:

1) In some browsers if you click on the link, the video will be HUGE.  In Chrome, I've been able to simply zoom out to 50% and I can see the entire screen.  Another trick is to play the video, and then WHILE it is playing, right-click, and select "open video in new tab".  The new video will start playing, so then close the first video.  The new video always seems to be zoomed correctly.

2) Students have reported that when they start the video, there is no track bar at the bottom that allows you to skip ahead or back-and-forth.  The solution we've found is to again, start the video, right-click, and open the video in a new tab.  Close the first video.  The second video always seems to have the track bar.

Simulation Information

TDR/TDT Information