Signal integrity improvement design of lossy transmission line based on a single-shot pulse: Design methodology of passive equalizer for PCB traces in the time domain

Abstract

High-speed digital signal propagating in PCB (Printed Circuit Board) traces deteriorates seriously in GHz domain due to the electrical loss in the trace coming from skin-effect and dielectric loss. In order to overcome this problem, we propose a novel deterministic and theoretical design method of the passive equalizer based on a single-shot pulse, in contrast to conventional stochastic designs that need repetitive computations. We also fabricate a prototype PCB board based on the proposed design method and demonstrate its effectiveness in terms of the s-parameter as well as the eye-diagram.