System and method for designing electrical trace lengths on printed circuit boards between impedance discontinuities
AssigneeEMC Corporation
InventorMickey Felton
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Described is a system and method of designing a length of an electrical trace used to implement a point-to-point serial link for conveying a digital signal between a transmitter and a receiver. A trace segment of the electrical trace is identified. The trace segment has a first endpoint determined by a first impedance discontinuity on the point-to-point serial link and a second endpoint determined by a second impedance discontinuity on the point-to-point serial link. A restricted length is calculated for the trace segment based on a propagation delay of the signal along the trace segment and a frequency of the signal. A length of the trace segment is set to be unequal to the restricted length.
Claims22
A method of designing a length of an electrical trace used to implement a point-to-point serial link for conveying a digital signal between a transmitter and a receiver, the method comprising:
- identifying a trace segment of the electrical trace, the trace segment having a first endpoint determined by a first impedance discontinuity on the point-to-point serial link and a second endpoint determined by a second impedance discontinuity on the point-to-point serial link;
- calculating a restricted length for the trace segment based on a propagation delay of the signal along the point-to-point serial link and on a frequency of the signal;
- and
- setting a length of the trace segment to be unequal to the restricted length.
A system, comprising:
- a transmitter transmitting a digital signal at a frequency;
- a receiver in communication with the transmitter by way of a point-to-point serial link for receiving the digital signal;
- and
- a trace segment in the point-to-point serial link, the trace segment having a first endpoint determined by a first impedance discontinuity on the point-to-point serial link and a second endpoint determined by a second impedance discontinuity on the point-to-point serial link, the trace segment having a trace length that is unequal to a restricted length determined for the point-to-point serial link based on a propagation delay of the digital signal and the frequency.
A system of designing a length of an electrical trace used to implement a point-to-point serial link for conveying a digital signal between a transmitter and a receiver, the system comprising:
- means for identifying a trace segment of the electrical trace, the trace segment having a first endpoint determined by a first impedance discontinuity on the point-to-point serial link and a second endpoint determined by a second impedance discontinuity on the point-to-point serial link;
- means for calculating a restricted length for the trace segment based on a propagation delay of the signal along the point-to-point serial link and on a frequency of the signal;
- and
- means for setting a length of the trace segment to be unequal to the restricted length.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.