EMC DESIGN GUIDE
HENRY OTT CONSULTANTS
PCB DESIGN GUIDELINES Guidelines for the design and layout of high-speed digital logic PCBs. Give a lot of consideration to component placement and orientation. Avoid overlapping clock harmonics. Make a harmonic table for each clock. Clock signal loop area must be kept as small as possible. Get paranoid about clocks! Use multilayer boards with power & ground planes whenever possible. All high frequency signal traces must be on layers adjacent to a plane. Keep signal layers as close to the adjacent plane layer as possible (< 10 mils). Above 25 MHz PCB's should have two (or more) ground planes. When power & ground planes are on adjacent layers, the power plane should be recessed from the edge of the ground plane by a distance equal to 20 times the spacing between the planes. Bury clock signals between power & ground planes whenever possible. Avoid slots in the ground plane. Also applies to the power plane. If a segmented power plane is necessary, signal traces must not be routed over the slots. Filter (series terminate) the output of clock drivers to slow down their rise/fall times and to reduce ringing (typically 33 to 70 ohms). Place the clocks & high-speed circuitry as far away from the I/O area as possible. Use a minimum of two equal value decoupling capacitors on DIP packages, four on square packages. On high frequency/high power/noisy IC's many more capacitors may be necessary. Consider using embedded capacitance PCB structures for decoupling on h-f boards (>50 MHz) Use impedance-controlled PCB layout techniques (with proper terminations) where necessary On impedance-controlled PCBs, do not transition the signal from one layer to another unless both layers are referenced to the same plane. On non impedance-controlled PCBs, when a clock transitions from one layer to another & the layers are referenced to different planes add a transfer via or capacitor between the planes. All traces whose length (in inches) is equal to or greater than the signal rise/fall time (in nanoseconds) must have provision for a series-terminating resistor (typically 33 ohms). Simulate all nets whose length (in inches) is equal to or greater than the signal rise/fall time (in ns) Connect logic ground to the chassis (with a very low Z connection) in the I/O area. This is crucial! Provide for an additional ground to chassis connection at the clock/oscillator location. Additional ground to chassis connections may also be required. Daughter boards (with h-f, noisy devices and/or external cables) must be properly grounded to the motherboard and/or chassis (do not rely on the ground pins in the connector to provide this ground). Provide C-M filters on all I/O lines. Group all I/O lines together in a designated I/O area of the PCB. Shunt capacitors used in I/O filters must have a very low impedance connection to chassis. Use a power entry filter on the dc power line (both C-M & D-M) Most products in plastic enclosures need to be provided with an additional metal reference plane. Consider the use of board level component shields where applicable. Ground all heat sinks.
Note: Clock means any h-f periodic signal (e.g., CLK, RAS, CAS, ALE, etc.)
2000 Henry W. Ott
Page
