OnTrack: The PCB Design Podcast

Roughness of the Copper and its Effect on the Signal Integrity

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I am very honored to have Bert Simonovich, a very well-known expert in the signal integrity community, in today’s episode. Bert developed the "Cannonball-Huray" model used for transmission line loss modeling, which has been adopted in several popular EDA tools.

 

We will be discussing several topics relating to copper roughness, including different approaches to ensure signal integrity in your PCB design.

 

Altium 365: Where the World Designs Electronics

Watch the video, click here.

 

Show Highlights:

  • Bert shares his background and experience
  • He did his microprocessor systems back in the late '70s and later worked at Bell-Northern Research in Ottawa, Canada
  • In the 90s he transitioned to Nortel from where he specialized in backplane design and signal integrity
  • He founded Lamsim in 2009
  • Bert retrospects using photo tools which is now the photo plotting with Gerbers. His experience helped him understand the mechanics of PCB construction
  • A client’s demand led to extensive research involving dielectric material comparisons and foil roughness
  • With various PCB surface roughness models, how to determine which process to move forward with?
    • Bert explains the Design Feedback Method
  • Cannonball technique is a roughness modeling approach which Bert also described as a heuristic method
  • Checkout Bert’s articles on SI Journal
  • Bert gives a detailed explanation of how copper is being used in PCBs
  • HDP user group international published a research paper Smooth Copper Signal Integrity in 2016
  • Bert and Zach agree that PCB construction is complicated and it is highly recommended for PCB designers and SI engineers to learn more about the fabrication process
  • What does reverse treated foil means, and how does it relate to the power layer?
  • Read Bert’s DesignCon Paper: A Practical Method to Model Effective Permittivity and Phase Delay Due to Conductor Surface Roughness

    • Links and Resources:

    Connect with Bert Simonovich on LinkedIn

    Follow Lamsim Enterprises Inc. on LinkedIn

    Visit Lamsim Enterprises Inc. website

    Read Bert’s Articles on SI Journal

     

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