Signal Waveform Verification for High-Speed Serial PCBs
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Solution Overview
Problem
In high-speed serial transmission on Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs), the large number of variations in elements and substrates makes it difficult to verify signal waveform quality within the actual design turnaround time, leading to potential failures due to verification omissions.
Innovation Solution
An information processing device generates analysis models for various combinations of variations, calculates impulse-response waveforms, determines the noise amount for each combination, selects the worst case, and performs signal waveform transition analysis on this worst case to verify signal quality efficiently.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If verification is performed on all combinations of variations, then verification completeness is improved, but verification time becomes excessively long
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the critical combinations of variations that most significantly affect signal waveform quality, rather than analyzing all possible combinations. This is achieved by identifying variations in impedance, signal level, and timing that have the greatest impact on transmission quality, thereby reducing verification time while maintaining sufficient reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates simplified models or representative samples of the most critical variation combinations to perform verification on these copies rather than on all actual combinations. This allows comprehensive verification coverage to be achieved in a fraction of the time required for exhaustive analysis.
2Loss of time
If manual extraction of some combinations is performed, then verification time is reduced, but verification omission occurs
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary analysis to identify and prioritize the most critical combinations of variations before conducting detailed verification. By pre-screening variations based on their potential impact on signal quality, the system ensures that the most important cases are verified while avoiding unnecessary analysis of less critical combinations.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the approach from verifying all combinations to verifying combinations based on prioritized parameters. By focusing on variations in key parameters such as impedance matching, signal attenuation, and timing skew, the system achieves reliable verification without exhaustive analysis of all possible variation combinations.
3Speed
If high-speed serial transmission is implemented, then data transmission speed is improved, but signal waveform quality deteriorates due to various factors
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary anti-action by performing waveform verification and identifying potential signal quality issues before actual high-speed transmission is implemented. By detecting problems related to impedance discontinuities, reflective noise, and signal attenuation in advance, the system can correct design issues before they cause transmission failures.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent converts the harmful effects of various factors (transmission loss, reflective noise, impedance discontinuities) into beneficial information by using waveform verification to identify and quantify these effects. This allows designers to understand and compensate for these factors, ultimately improving signal quality despite the presence of these adverse factors.
Data Source
AI summary
An information processing device includes a memory; and one or more processors which are coupled to the memory and configured to performs a process including verifying a quality of a signal waveform that is propagated through focused wiring on a substrate, and storing information which is used for the verification of the quality of the signal waveform, and wherein the verifying includes generating analysis models of a plurality of respective combinations of variations in a plurality of kinds of elements which have an influence on the quality of the signal waveform; calculating impulse-response-waveforms of the plurality of respective combinations using the generated analysis models; calculating the noise amount of the plurality of respective combinations based on the calculated impulse-response-waveforms; selecting a combination, in which the calculated noise amount is the largest, as a worst case in the plurality of combinations; and performing signal waveform-transition-analysis on the selected worst case.