Key facts

Overview

Howard Johnson's advanced workshop for Digital and Analogue Designers

This course is part of Oxford University's High-Speed Digital Engineering Month.

Please send me an email about future Advanced High-Speed Signal Propagation courses .

Description

This is an advanced-level course for experienced digital designers who want to press their designs to the upper limits of speed and distance.

Focusing on lossy transmission environments like backplanes, cables and long on-chip interconnections, this course teaches a unified theory of transmission impairments that apply to any transmission media. Topics include: skin effect and dielectric loss, on-chip vs. off-chip transmission-line behavior, equalization, serial interconnections, lossy media, single-ended and differential signaling, frequency-domain modeling, signal distribution and clock jitter.

This course is an advanced sequel to High-Speed Digital Design by Dr Howard Johnson.

All delegates will receive a free copy of Howard Johnson's "High-Speed Signal Propagation - Advanced Black Magic" DVD. Click here for DVD information.

Benefits

• This is a practical course, filled with practical examples and explanations.
• Delegates without the benefit of formal training in analog circuit theory can use and apply the formulas and examples from this course to determine which of their circuits will encounter difficulties and how to fix them.
• Delegates who have completed (at least) a first-year university level class in introductory linear circuit theory will comprehend the material at a deeper level.

Programme details

Course Content

Fundamentals of Time and Frequency

• Characterize the types of simulation tools available to help you in your design, including the division between linear and non-linear analysis
• Review relations among time, frequency, and the physical extent of a circuit, including rules for dimensional scaling
• Introduce a theorem about maximal resonance

Lossy Transmission Line Parameters

• Model a transmission structure using a cascade of simple linear elements
• Define the characteristic impedance and propagation function
• Trace the flow of returning signal current on an ideal, lossless transmission line
• Calculate DC resistance
• Evaluate AC resistance including skin effect, proximity effect and surface roughness
• Investigate dielectric losses
• Define two-port S-parameter representations of transmission structures, and show how they are used to compute system response

Classroom demonstration: A transmission line is always a transmission line

Performance Regions: On-chip vs. Off-chip

• Present the standard copper performance model
• Explore the hierarchy of transmission-line performance regions
• Study the lumped-element region, useful for understanding small interconnections and transmission-line imperfections
• On-chip connections use the RC region
• PCB interconnections use the skin-effect and dielectric-loss-limited regions
• Show the similarities and differences among the various regions
• Check conditions for existence of undesirable non-TEM modes
• Discuss the need for equalization, and show examples of equalizer circuits
• Investigate DC wander and circuits for DC restoration

Example waveforms: 10 Gb/s serial link with PAM-4 coding and fully adaptive equalizer

Pcb Trace Design and Connectors

• Dissect microstrip and stripline design tables
• Consider the effects of nickel plating and soldermask coating
• Estimate limits to the attainable length of a pcb trace operated at extreme speeds
• Compute the effects of impedance discontinuities caused by stubs and loads and learn to counteract these effects
• Characterize connectors
• Introduce the concept of tapering necessary for certain SMA connector applications
• Scrutinize the capacitance and inductance of a via, including the effect of pad-stripping, back-drilling, blind vias, and dangling via stubs

Classroom demonstration: proximity effect for differential stripline traces Classroom video: experiment showing inductance of vias, and effect of distance to the nearest inter-plane connection

Differential Signaling

• Define differential and common-mode voltages, currents, impedance and differential S-parameters
• Present design tables for both edge-coupled and broadside-coupled differential traces
• Cite the specific advantages of differential signaling including improved tolerance to ground shifts, reduced radiation, and better tolerance of high-frequency losses
• Discuss management of differential skew

Clock Distribution and Jitter

• Review special requirements for clock signaling including low skew
• Consider means of attaining exceptionally low skew
• Emphasize the importance of terminating clock lines
• Provide advice on routing differential clocks
• Show why serpentine delays (source one from loads multiple driving for strategies) often deliver poor results
• Discuss the general issue of distributing high-quality signals to multiple loads
• Show how to construct and test a proper daisy-chain, "T", or "H" distribution
• Define clock jitter, clock jitter propagation, methods for measuring jitter, and the emerging issue of random versus deterministic jitter budgeting

All delegates will receive a free copy of Howard Johnson's "High-Speed Signal Propagation - Advanced Black Magic" DVD.

First day registration from 8.30am when course materials will be distributed.
Refreshments from 8.30am on the first day plus two 30 minute breaks during the day and a one-hour lunch break.
The course will begin at 9.00am and end at approximately 5.00pm on each day.

Staff

Dr Howard Johnson

Role: Speaker

Signal Consulting Inc

Dr Howard Johnson, author of "High-Speed Digital Design" and "High-Speed Signal...more Propagation", has accumulated 30 years of experience in digital design, consulting with engineers all over the world at Intel, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Dell, Northern Telecom, Alcatel, Cisco, and many other companies.

He is the featured Signal Integrity columnist for EDN Magazine and Chief Technical Editor of IEEE 802.3 standards for Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet.

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Certification

Participants who satisfy the course requirements will receive a Certificate of Attendance. The pdf sample above is an illustration only, and the wording will reflect the course and dates attended.

Level and demands

This is an advanced course for Digital logic engineers, chip designers, system architects, EMC specialists, and applications engineers; anyone working with digital logic at speeds in excess of 1 GHz.

Accommodation

Accommodation is available at the Rewley House Residential Centre, within the Department for Continuing Education, in central Oxford. The comfortable, en-suite, study-bedrooms are rated 3-star, and come with free high-speed internet access and TV. Guests can take advantage of the excellent dining facilities and common room bar, where they may relax and network with others on the programme.

Payment

Fees include course materials, tuition, refreshments and lunches. The price does not include accommodation.

All courses are VAT exempt.

Fee options

Programme Fee

Standard Course Feee: £1095.00

Standard Course Fee (including 1 copy of the reference book): £1165.00

Apply for this course

Programmes including this module

This module can be studied as part of these programmes:

• High-speed digital engineering and EMC