Target Condition: Are Autorouters Friend or Foe?
Fresh PCB Concepts: Assembly Challenges with Micro Components and Standard Solder Mask Practices
Elementary Mr. Watson: Retro Routers vs. Modern Boards—The Silent Struggle on Your Screen
Siemens White Paper: Overview of Channel Equalization Techniques for Serial Interfaces
January 6, 2022 | Siemens Digital IndustriesEstimated reading time: Less than a minute
The newer industry-standard SerDes protocols such as PCIe Gen6, USB4, and the 100G per-lane Ethernet and OIF/CEI standards offer an increasing challenge for PCB designers on multiple fronts. On the one hand, the speeds are approximately doubling for each generation. At the same time, the circuit board material used is often the same as the previous generations in order to keep costs down. To compensate for the increased loss at higher data rates, complex equalization techniques are employed.
From an IC design perspective, deciding what types of equalization circuits need to be incorporated in the transceivers design, has cost, power, and silicon area implications. From an EDA perspective, the large variety of compliance methods and ways to define equalization types along with their associated transfer functions and constraints leads to increased complexity of the analysis tools.
This Siemens paper will highlight some important aspects of the most popular interconnect specifications, with a focus on the reference equalizers.
To download this free white paper, click here.
Share on:
Suggested Items
Facing the Future: Time for Real Talk, Early and Often, Between Design and Fabrication
07/08/2025 | Prashant Patel -- Column: Facing the FutureThere has always been a subtle but significant divide between those who design and those who build printed circuit boards. It’s not a hostile gap, but it is a real one, and in today’s high-speed, high-complexity, high-stakes environment, that gap is costing us more than time and yield. It’s costing us innovation.
DownStream Acquisition Fits Siemens’ ‘Left-Shift’ Model
06/26/2025 | Andy Shaughnessy, I-Connect007I recently spoke to DownStream Technologies founder Joe Clark about the company’s acquisition by Siemens. We were later joined by A.J. Incorvaia, Siemens’ senior VP of electronic board systems. Joe discussed how he, Rick Almeida, and Ken Tepper launched the company in the months after 9/11 and how the acquisition came about. A.J. provides some background on the acquisition and explains why the companies’ tools are complementary.
Elementary Mr. Watson: Retro Routers vs. Modern Boards—The Silent Struggle on Your Screen
06/26/2025 | John Watson -- Column: Elementary, Mr. WatsonThere's a story about a young woman preparing a holiday ham. Before putting it in the pan, she cuts off the ends. When asked why, she shrugs and says, "That's how my mom always did it." She asks her mother, who gives the same answer. Eventually, the question reaches Grandma, who laughs and says, "Oh, I only cut the ends off because my pan was too small." This story is a powerful analogy for how many PCB designers approach routing today.
Connect the Dots: The Future of PCB Design and Manufacturing
07/02/2025 | Matt Stevenson -- Column: Connect the DotsFor some time, I have been discussing the increasing complexity of PCBs and how designers can address the constantly evolving design requirements associated with them. My book, "The Printed Circuit Designer’s Guide to… Designing for Reality," details best practices for creating manufacturable boards in a modern production environment.
Siemens Turbocharges Semiconductor and PCB Design Portfolio with Generative and Agentic AI
06/24/2025 | SiemensAt the 2025 Design Automation Conference, Siemens Digital Industries Software today unveiled its AI-enhanced toolset for the EDA design flow.