Foreword

The widespread growth of high-speed and broadband systems poses increasing challenges to the designers of modern information and communication equipment. Effective signal integrity (SI) and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) solutions are fundamental for the marketing of reliable devices able to ensure perfect functionality and compliance with legal standards.

In the area of high-speed design, it is necessary to analyze power and signal integrity issues at an early stage of the design, before the prototype board is fabricated. Typical signal integrity issues are reflections and crosstalk. Typical power integrity issues are power supply system input impedance, simultaneous switching noise, printed circuit board (PCB) resonance, decoupling capacitor placement, and edge radiations. Power distribution systems play an important role in power and signal integrity and electromagnetic interference (EMI). It is a common experience that the EMC of digital systems improves significantly when boards are subjected to careful power integrity and signal integrity analysis. To this end, it is necessary to analyze the input impedance between power and ground and further provide an equivalent circuit model for signal integrity analysis. Also, the prediction of simultaneous switching noise must be performed in the time domain, employing non-linear models for drivers and receivers.

This book provides a good overview of the above-mentioned SI and EMC issues, and discusses how to design boards with a careful consideration of signal and power integrity. Using realistic case studies and downloadable software examples, a leading expert from industry and his academic coauthor demonstrate today's best practices for designing and modeling interconnects in order to distribute power and minimize noise efficiently.

The reader will enjoy a review of the most important phenomena determining the SI and EMC of PCB systems equipped with digital circuits. The aim of this book is to highlight the effects of variation in design parameters on system performance, and to provide criteria for design. For all of the phenomena mentioned, mathematical models are specified. Many of these models are ready to implement in high-level formula-evaluation programs and/or circuit simulators, and the authors provide useful examples of such implementation.

The approach and practical examples of this book make it a valuable tool for learners and professionals concerned with signal and power integrity and electromagnetic interference, including electrical engineers, system designers, and signal integrity engineers.

In conclusion, the efforts made by the authors to produce this quality contribution should be highly praised. I am sure that the publication of this book represents a significant step forward in promoting the awareness of SI and EMC problems among the designers of electrical and electronic systems. With this in mind, I recommend this book to the reader, and I wish every success to this work and to its authors.

Flavio Canavero

Politecnico di Torino,

Turin, 2008