Electrical parameters - General Principles of Impedance control

7 important questions on Electrical parameters - General Principles of Impedance control

What is a transmission line?

A transimission line is any pair of conductors used to move electrical energy from point A to point B. A transmission line always consists of a signal conductor and a return conductor. The moving energy is primarily contained between the signal and return conductors in the form of an electric field and a magnetic field. In the case of a printed board, the return conductor will likely be a power or ground plane in the board.

What is the impedance of a transmission line basically?

That property which resist propagaton of the energy through the circuit.
It is important to maintain consistent impedance throughout all conductors and elements of a given circuit.

Which variables are affecting impedance?

  • Dielectric Constant of Substrate
    - Base Material
    - Frequency: Dk may vary with frequency
    - Temperature: for FR4 20% from 0 to 70 °C
  • Dielectric Thickness: impedance increases with thickness
    ! be carefull with thin dielectric and its tolerance
  • prepreg and core material will probably have a slightly different Dk
  • Conductor width: impedance decreases for wider conductors.
  • Conductor Thickness: As conductor thickness increases, the overall impedance will decrease but the impact isn't that big.
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  1. What are the two most important factors in determining impedance?

  1. Dielectric Thickness
  2. Conductor Width: A lot of times the conductor width cannot be varied much due to routing constraints.

What are the main reasons for matching the line impedance?

  • Emissions: Signal overshoot and undershoot are a major contributor of emissions, and are reduced with properly matched lines.
  • Signal Integrity:
    - Reflections
    - Propagation Time
    - Proper circuit Operation

Different Conductor Impedance Configurations (transmission lines) ? #5

  • Surface Microstrip
  • Embedded Microstrip
  • Stripline (balanced & unbalanced)
  • Dual Stripline (balanced & unbalanced)
    !Signals are orthagonal to signals on other plane
  • Discrete wiring techniques

Which formula do you use to calculate the impedance?

Use the formula that your board fabricator uses!
Also, it's very important to coordinate the printed board dielectric and
stack-up requirements with the fabricator.

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