Signal integrity & power integrity FAQs
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The 2-port shunt-through impedance testing method is the gold standard for measuring a power supply's output impedance and a PDN. It can also be used to measure the loop gain (phase) and assess stability performance.
What is commonly referred to as supply and ground bounce is really the inductively coupled cross talk between I/O loop inductances. This inductively coupled cross talk is created when the wide data bus of an IC shares a common supply and return lead, which has parasitic inductance. Simultaneous switching noise (SSN) is often also referred to as Vcc bounce or ground bounce.
Our products are designed for hardware engineers, PCB designers, ASIC/chiplet/MCM package designers, system architects, and companies across various industries, including data centers, telecommunications, automotive, and aerospace, who require robust solutions for high-speed electronic design challenges.
Signal Integrity (SI) refers to the quality of an electrical signal as it travels through a transmission line. In high-speed designs, poor SI can lead to data errors, reduced performance, and system failures due to issues like reflections, crosstalk, and noise. Ensuring robust SI is critical for reliable data transmission.
Our signal integrity products, including advanced simulation models and measurement tools, enable precise analysis of signal behavior, identify potential issues like reflections and crosstalk, and guide designers in implementing optimal impedance matching, termination strategies, and routing guidelines to improve signal quality.
The Power Delivery Network (PDN) is the system of conductors, planes, and components that deliver power from the voltage regulator module (VRM) to the integrated circuits. A well-designed PDN is critical for maintaining stable voltage levels, suppressing noise, and ensuring reliable system operation.
On-site EMC pre-compliance testing brings the testing environment directly to your facility. It's a crucial early-stage evaluation of your product's electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) and electromagnetic interference (EMI) performance, helping identify and fix potential issues before formal certification testing.
On-site testing offers unparalleled convenience, eliminating the need to ship prototypes and reducing costly downtime. It allows for real-time adjustments and immediate retesting, significantly accelerating your product development cycle and leading to substantial cost savings by avoiding multiple lab visits.
By identifying and resolving EMI/EMC issues early in your design cycle, on-site testing helps you avoid expensive retesting at accredited labs, minimizes design iterations, and significantly reduces the risk of product launch delays due to compliance failures, ultimately leading to a faster and more cost-effective time-to-market.
Our expert team arrives equipped with a portable, state-of-the-art EMC pre-compliance test setup, including calibrated spectrum analyzers, EMI receivers, various antennas, near-field probes, signal generators, and all necessary supporting equipment to conduct accurate diagnostics at your location. Additionally, for highly sensitive measurements or when isolating your product's emissions is crucial, we can deploy our mobile anechoic chamber, offering over 100 dB of RF isolation, which can be fully set up in a matter of minutes.
Absolutely. A key advantage of our on-site service is the immediate diagnostic and troubleshooting support provided by our experienced EMC engineers. We work with your team in real-time to pinpoint the root cause of EMI issues and recommend effective mitigation strategies. We also leverage advanced simulation tools to quickly streamline troubleshooting efforts, allowing for rapid analysis and virtual testing of potential solutions before implementing physical changes.
As chips become more complex and operate at higher speeds, the package is no longer just a protective shell. It's a critical component impacting system performance, power delivery, signal integrity, thermal management, and overall cost. Expert package design is essential to unlock the full potential of your silicon and achieve optimal system-level performance, miniaturization, and reliability.
We provide design services for a wide range of ASIC package types, including high-density BGAs, LGAs, QFNs, and advanced custom multi-chip modules (MCMs) or System-in-Package (SiP) solutions, utilizing both wire bond and flip-chip interconnect technologies tailored to your specific application needs.
Leveraging advanced simulation and analysis tools, we meticulously optimize ASIC package designs for robust signal and power integrity. This includes precise impedance matching, minimizing crosstalk, optimizing power delivery networks (PDN) for stable voltage, implementing effective decoupling strategies, and mitigating EMI to ensure reliable high-speed data transmission.
Chiplets are functional blocks of silicon (e.g., CPU cores, memory, I/O) that are designed independently and then integrated into a single package. Their packaging is challenging due to the need for extremely high-density, low-latency, and high-bandwidth inter-chiplet communication, as well as complex power delivery and thermal management across multiple dies.
Our approach focuses on optimizing the physical layout and interconnects, employing advanced techniques such as high-density micro-bumps, efficient routing strategies, and considering future use of Through-Silicon Vias (TSVs) for vertical integration. We meticulously analyze signal loss, crosstalk, and timing budgets to ensure robust and high-performance die-to-die communication.
An interposer is an intermediate substrate (often silicon or organic) that provides high-density routing and fine-pitch interconnects between a main chip, multiple chiplets, or memory (like HBM) and the underlying PCB. It becomes necessary when direct connection to the PCB is impractical due to density, performance, or power requirements, enabling advanced 2.5D packaging architectures.
Silicon interposers offer extremely fine pitch and high density, often utilizing TSVs for vertical connections, ideal for the highest performance and HBM integration. Organic interposers are generally more cost-effective for designs requiring slightly less extreme density. We design both silicon and organic interposers, advising on the optimal choice based on your specific performance, cost, and integration requirements.
Our comprehensive design process begins with detailed requirements analysis and architectural definition. This moves into physical design, layout, and extensive multi-physics simulations (electrical, thermal, mechanical). We emphasize Design for Manufacturability (DFM) and rigorous verification to ensure a first-time-right design.
Effective thermal management is paramount for high-power designs. We utilize advanced thermal simulation tools to predict and optimize heat dissipation, designing integrated solutions that may include optimized heat spreader designs, consideration of heat sinks, and selection of appropriate thermal interface materials (TIMs) to ensure junction temperatures remain within limits.