Controlled Impedance

An introduction
(No electronics background required)
 Controlled impedance
PCB’s
• Are used in high frequency applications
• A controlled impedance trace
simulates coaxial cable on a PCB
• by constructing the board in a special method
• (Differential traces simulate twisted pair)
 Controlled impedance
PCB’s
• Are used in high frequency applications
• A controlled impedance trace
simulates coaxial cable on a PCB
• by constructing the board in a special method
• (Differential traces simulate twisted pair)
 Controlled impedance
PCB’s
• Are used in high frequency applications
• A controlled impedance trace
simulates coaxial cable on a PCB
• by constructing the board in a special method
• (Differential traces simulate twisted pair)
 Controlled impedance
PCB’s
• Are used in high frequency applications
• A controlled impedance trace
simulates coaxial cable on a PCB
• by constructing the board in a special method
• (Differential traces simulate twisted pair)
 Controlled impedance
PCB’s
• Are used in high frequency applications
• A controlled impedance trace
simulates coaxial cable on a PCB
• by constructing the board in a special method
• (Differential traces simulate twisted pair)
 Controlled impedance
PCB’s
• Are used in high frequency applications
• A controlled impedance trace
simulates coaxial cable on a PCB
• by constructing the board in a special method
• (Differential traces simulate twisted pair)
 Why?
• At high frequencies PCB traces do
not behave like simple connections
• We need to ensure that signals are not
degraded as they route around the PCB
What happens if you don’t use
Controlled impedance tracks?
• Try replacing the 75Ohm coax that
connects your TV aerial with
a length of meter wire!
• See what effect it has on the picture
What happens if you don’t use
Controlled impedance tracks?
• Try replacing the 75Ohm coax that
connects your TV aerial with
a length of meter wire!
 When should you consider
impedance control?
• In PCB’s used for fast digital applications
• telecommunications
• computing 100MHz and above
• high quality analog video
• signal processing
• RF communication
Why does a PCB behave in a special
way at high frequency?

• When signals are very fast, effects which

can be ignored at slow speeds become
important
• Electrical charge flows along a PCB
trace at around 1/2 the speed of light
• Think of the electrical charge as
water flowing through a channel
 Analogy
• In a narrow channel water flows at a
steady rate, a change in the channel width
will however cause a reflected wave to
return to the source,
• Should the channel narrow the wave will
travel back to the source at an increased
height, a wider channel will reflect as a
reduced water height.
 At extreme cases
• If water flows into a closed channel, the
reflected wave will travel back to the
source at double its incoming height.
• If the channel ends (i.e... becomes
infinitely wide), the wave traveling back
to the source will empty the channel.
 Electrically
• These effects are taking place at half the
speed of light...
• At high speed designers of digital
systems need to consider these effects as
a poor match of impedance will result in
lower noise immunity, in the worst case
a 0 becomes 1 and we have an error
condition.
 Summary
• Consider controlled impedance on boards
operating faster than 100MHz
• Remember that at high speeds PCB traces
no longer behave as simple interconnects
• Controlled impedance boards provide
repeatable high frequency performance
• Testing need not be complex or time
consuming...
For more information:

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