Knocking Down the Bone Pile: Precision Milling of Underfilled Surface-mount Components
Learning with Leo: Drones—Meeting Demand Without Compromise
Nolan’s Notes: Our Spotlight on North America
Staying on Top of Signal Integrity Challenges
September 16, 2025 | Andy Shaughnessy, Design007 MagazineEstimated reading time: 2 minutes
Over the years, Kris Moyer has taught a variety of advanced PCB design classes, both online IPC courses and in-person classes at California State University-Sacramento, where he earned his degrees in electrical engineering.
Much of his advanced curriculum focuses on signal integrity, so we asked Kris to discuss the trends he’s seeing in signal integrity today, the SI challenges facing PCB designers, and his go-to techniques for controlling or completely eliminating SI problems.
Andy Shaughnessy: Kris, your advanced design classes focus quite a bit on signal integrity. What SI issues are giving your students the most trouble today?
Kris Moyer: We actually cover signal integrity in all the IPC design courses except Introduction to PCB Design 1. Several SI issues come up in the classes fairly often. First is the problem of reflections and the associated overshoot and undershoot caused by impedance discontinuity in the transmission line design. The other issue that comes up quite frequently is how to design the power distribution system, including the selection of the decoupling capacitors to minimize the ground bounce/VCC bounce that happens during the switching events of modern digital systems.
Shaughnessy: Silicon geometries are likely to continue to keep shrinking. What effects do these shrinking features have on the PCB designer’s job?
Moyer: In my Professional Development course at APEX EXPO, I discuss that as silicon geometries of the devices continue to shrink, the rise/fall time of the digital signals will continue to get faster (decrease in time). This, in turn, will cause the frequency content in the square wave to increase. So, instead of the traditional 10–15 harmonics of the fundamental frequency we think of for traditional square waves, with these faster rise/fall times, we are now seeing harmonics of 50, 100, 200, or more of the fundamental frequency being necessary to create the sharp edge of the faster rise/fall times.
To continue reading this interview, which originally appeared in the September 2025 edition of Design007 Magazine, click here.
Share on:
Testimonial
"We’re proud to call I-Connect007 a trusted partner. Their innovative approach and industry insight made our podcast collaboration a success by connecting us with the right audience and delivering real results."
Julia McCaffrey - NCAB GroupSuggested Items
Advance Your Electronics Expertise in June and July
05/14/2026 | Global Electronics AssociationStay current with design, manufacturing, and quality standards by enrolling in one of these online instructor-led courses starting in June and July from ElectronicsU at the Global Electronics Association, designed to help professionals at every level sharpen their skills and advance their careers. These live, expert-led sessions combine flexibility with real-time interaction, allowing participants to learn directly from seasoned industry professionals while collaborating with peers worldwide. Access to all applicable IPC standards is included in the courses.
Road to Reliability: Engineering High Uptime EV Charging Infrastructure
05/13/2026 | Stanton Rak, SF Rak CompanyThe transition to EVs is no longer constrained solely by vehicle capability. Instead, it is increasingly defined by a simpler, but more unforgiving question: Will the charger work when I arrive? This high uptime does not happen by accident. As EV technology has matured, limitations in battery range, power electronics, and thermal management are no longer the primary barriers to adoption.
U.S. Aerospace, Defense Firms Accelerate Digital Strategies
05/13/2026 | BUSINESS WIREU.S. aerospace and defense enterprises are adopting integrated digital practices, AI-enabled design and software-centric development approaches as the requirements for competitiveness change, according to a new research report published by Information Services Group (ISG)
PTC Onshape Introduces Direct Altium Integration to Streamline ECAD-MCAD Collaboration
05/12/2026 | PRNewswirePTC announced a new integration between its cloud-native Onshape® computer‑aided design (CAD) and product data management (PDM) platform and Altium.
Three Howard University Engineers Launch Trace to Automate PCB Design Workflows
05/12/2026 | Globe NewswireTrace, an AI software company automating the printed circuit board (PCB) design workflow, has launched out of stealth and is now accepting customers worldwide.