Signal Integrity, High-frequency Technology
The recently defined standards for mobile communications require that system hardware has higher transmission frequencies, bandwidths and data rates. For base stations, this mainly means homogeneous signal guidance on PCBs, PCB transitions and cables. The greater the difference in the impedance levels of the line sections, the stronger the signal reflections and signal attenuation appear at the transitions.
Consequently, the requirements made of high-frequency connections are high. They must be compact, able to withstand hard mechanical knocks, compensate for tolerances between the daughter card and the backplane, while not causing any significant signal reflections and signal attenuation and must guarantee a reliable contact for at least 15 years.
Signal attenuation and distortion, crosstalk, radiant emission, etc., represent unwanted electromagnetic effects that can occur as the result of the constantly growing data rates and increasing integration density in connectors, cables, printed circuit boards, etc.
For examining such effects in the early stages of product or system development, Corporate Technology Services offers extensive metrological possibilities of signal integrity analysis:
Measurements in the time domain:
Eye diagram measurement up to 12.5GBit/s
- Characteristic impedance
- Reflection
- Risetime degradation
- Propagation delay
- Crosstalk
- Eye diagrams
Measurements in the frequency domain:
Physical Test Layer System (PLTS); characterization of the signal
- Insertion loss
- Return loss, VSWR
- Crosstalk
- S-parameter analysis
- Transfer impedance
- Shielding attenuation