White Papers
When history books cite the ‘industrial revolution’, they typically refer to the great improvement of productivity as workers gathered in factories to utilize mechanization using water and steam power. However, there have been subsequent improvements, with the second step change in productivity coming from the adoption of the assembly line and mass production. The adoption of computers and robotics was the next significant improvement, referred to as ‘Industry 3.0’. Manufacturing is now on the cusp of another substantial enhancement in productivity, as greater digitization and adoption of machine learning, AI, and wireless connectivity enable computers to continuously monitor multiple aspects of production and optimize processes accordingly. This transition is described as ‘Industry 4.0’
High-Speed Constraint Values and PCB Layout Methods allows PCB designers and engineers to understand all the important constraints and determine their values in a fast and precise manner using the accompanying calculator. The calculator, in its own right, is marvelously designed and simple to use.
This book covers most aspects of high-speed design, items such as the importance of IC output rise time (edge rate), critical line length, the role of dielectric constant, impedance control, setting up constraint classes, reference planes and signal returns, differential pair skew, including the impact of fiber weave, crosstalk and trace corners, as well as via stubs and via impedance.
The author, Charles Pfeil, is a retired PCB layout software architect. In the PCB industry for over 50 years, Charles has been a designer, owner of a service bureau, and had engineering management and product definition roles at Racal-Redac, ASI, Cadence, PADS, VeriBest, Mentor Graphics, and Altium. Most of his career was at Mentor Graphics, where he was a software architect focused on advanced development of PCB design tools. He was the original product architect of Expedition PCB, and an inventor of Team PCB, XtremePCB, XtremeAR, and the Sketch Router. He is also the author of BGA Breakouts and Routing.
