Challenges in High-Speed Systems Design

Abstract

As system performance levels and clock frequencies continue to rise at a rapid rate, managing noise, radiation, and power consumption becomes an increasingly important issue. At high frequencies, the traces on a PCB carrying signals act as transmission lines and antennas that can generate signal reflections and radiations that cause distortion and create challenges in achieving timing requirements, industry interconnect protocol compliance, and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) compliance. These can often make it difficult to meet Federal Communication Commission (FCC) Class A and Class B [1] requirements. Heat sinks and venting that may be required to address the thermal challenges of high-performance designs can further exacerbate EMC problems. Many systems today have embedded wireless local area network (WLAN) and Bluetooth, which will create further difficulties as intentional radiators are designed into the system.