Digital Circuit Boards: Mach 1 GHz
A unique, practical approach to the design of high-speed digital circuit boards
The demand for ever-faster digital circuit designs is beginning to render the circuit theory used by engineers ineffective. Digital Circuit Boards presents an alternative to the circuit theory approach, emphasizing energy flow rather than just signal interconnection to explain logic circuit behavior.
The book shows how treating design in terms of transmission lines will ensure that the logic will function, addressing both storage and movement of electrical energy on these lines. It covers transmission lines in all forms to illustrate how trace geometry defines where the signals can travel, then goes on to examine transmission lines as energy sources, the true nature of decoupling, types of resonances, ground bounce, cross talk, and more.
Providing designers with the tools they need to lay out digital circuit boards for fast logic and to get designs working the first time around, Digital Circuit Boards:
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Reviews in simple terms the basic physics necessary to understand fast logic design
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Debunks the idea that electrical conductors carry power and signals, showing that signal travels in the spaces, not the traces, of circuit boards
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Explains logic circuit behavior through real-time analysis involving the fields and waves that carry signal and energy
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Provides new information on how ground/power planes work
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Outlines a software program for solving energy flow in complex networks
Why Read This Book
You will learn a practical, layout-oriented way to think about high-speed digital boards by treating traces and planes as energy paths rather than just interconnections. The book gives hands-on guidance for designing decoupling networks, managing return currents, and avoiding signal-integrity and EMI problems that commonly plague GHz-range embedded designs.
Who Will Benefit
Embedded hardware engineers and PCB designers who need to build reliable, high-speed digital boards and who want practical rules-of-thumb and measurement-backed techniques for SI/PDN issues.
Level: Advanced — Prerequisites: Solid basic circuit theory and PCB-layout experience; familiarity with digital logic signals and basic transmission-line concepts; experience using oscilloscopes/TDRs or network analyzers is helpful.
Key Takeaways
- Analyze how transmission-line geometry defines where energy travels on a PCB and how that affects logic behavior.
- Design effective decoupling and power distribution networks to control energy storage and movement at high speeds.
- Apply termination, routing, and plane-stack strategies to minimize reflections, ringing, and crosstalk at GHz frequencies.
- Predict and mitigate EMI and signal-integrity failures using practical measurement techniques (TDR, scope) and layout fixes.
- Optimize return-current paths and plane behavior to reduce noise coupling and ground bounce in dense digital designs.
- Use a transmission-line/energy-flow mindset to make layout decisions that historically relied on ad-hoc rules.
Topics Covered
- Introduction: Why circuit theory breaks down at high speed
- Energy flow versus lumped-circuit thinking
- Transmission-line fundamentals and signal propagation
- Trace geometry, modes, and where signals can travel
- Return currents, plane behavior, and reference management
- Decoupling: the true nature of bypassing and energy storage
- Power distribution networks and capacitor placement
- Termination, reflections, and shaping logic edges
- Crosstalk, coupling mechanisms, and mitigation
- Layout strategies for SI and EMC on digital boards
- Measurement techniques: TDR, oscilloscope, and lab methods
- Practical examples, troubleshooting, and design checklists
Languages, Platforms & Tools
How It Compares
Covers similar practical PCB-layout ground as Howard Johnson's High-Speed Digital Design and Eric Bogatin's Signal and Power Integrity, but Morrison emphasizes an energy-flow/transmission-line viewpoint with highly practical layout and decoupling guidance.
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