Material constraints on high-speed design

Abstract

Current high-speed circuit designs with signal rates up to 100Gbps and above are implying constraints for dielectric and conductive materials and their dependence of frequency, for component elements and for production processes. The purpose of this paper is to highlight through various simulation results the frequency dependence of specific parameters like insertion and return loss, eye diagrams, group delay that are part of signal integrity analyses type. In low-power environment designs become more complex as the operation frequency increases. The need for new materials with spatial uniformity for dielectric constant is a need for higher data rates circuits. The fiber weave effect (FWE) will be analyzed through the eye diagram results for various dielectric materials in a differential signaling scheme given the fact that the FWE is a phenomenon that affects randomly the performance of the circuit on balanced/differential transmission lines which are typically characterized through the above mentioned approaches. Crosstalk between traces is also of concern due to propagated signals that have tight rise and fall times or due to high density of the boards. Criteria should be considered to achieve maximum performance of the designed system requiring critical electronic properties.