In earlier days of the PCB or the printed circuit board; speed was not a major factor. All efforts were given to neatly aligning the components and creating proper connections between them. But, now, speed has become one of the most important factors when designing a printed circuit board. With speed, several other things like electromagnetic interference, signal reflection, heat dissipation need to be taken care of. Hence, with the involvement of speed the process to design a printed circuit board takes on a whole new level.
Whenever we talk about high speed during designing a PCB; the issue of interference comes up. If the signals are moving with high speeds some methods, undoubtedly, needs to be employed to protect the integrity of the signals. As a signal moves through the electronic circuit it creates electromagnetic radiation which is harmless in small amounts. But, with high speed, the same electromagnetic radiation starts to interfere with the operation of the electronic circuit and the electronic device as a whole. At this point
Following are some beginner tips which can prove to be handy to ease your design time and create a high-speed PCB design.
- Always have a plan
Don’t just start your high-speed PCB project randomly, instead, have a plan to follow. If you don’t have a plan you are most likely to suffer from failure and setbacks in the end. You must take care of factors such as system organization, the speed of the signal, power supply, and sensitive signals etc. before embarking upon the process to create a high-speed PCB design. Try creating a visual diagram of your PCB in your mind before starting the designing process.
Moreover, at the planning stage, you require working with the manufacturer too to understand the manufacturing process.
- Document, Document & Document
Now, since you have planned everything visually it is time to document everything ranging from materials to be used in the manufacture of the board and design constraints that you need to take care of.
If you document everything beforehand it will be much easier to work upon the established strategy. Otherwise, there are chances that you may go astray from your requirements and strategy which could result in an issue later in the manufacturing as well as fabricating part of the PCB development process.
- Organization of the board
Now, you must also take care of the organization of your board. You must know how you will organize your board. There are several sub-circuits working in a larger circuit. One must know where exactly the subcircuits are required to be placed in the larger circuit so as to create an effective high speed printed circuital board. This case holds more importantly for digital and analog sections. There must be a significant amount of isolation between digital and analog sections so as to prevent any kind of possible interference.
- Route your signals
Since the high-frequency signals are going to generate tons of electromagnetic radiation; you don’t want two signals interfering with one another. Hence to avoid conflicts make sure that you keep long, parallel signals on your board and maintain as much space as possible between the signal traces. You can also use multiple layers to reduce noise in signal routing.
