Intra-pair skew compensation of differential signals

Abstract

If the two traces of a differential signal trace pair are not of identical length, intra-pair skew occurs as a result of the different flight time for the signal on each trace. Introducing serpentine routing into the shorter trace compensates for the intra-pair skew by increasing the effective length of the trace. However, the serpentine routing may also introduce impedance discontinuities. An impedance discontinuity leads to reflections and resonances, which hamper the transmitted signal in reaching the receiver. Adding extrusions to the serpentine routing may improve the impedance profile of the differential trace and thus lower reflections.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.