Anablog

Eric dropped me a note that he will be giving his great signal integrity seminars September 29-Oct 7, 2009 here in San Jose, California. There are three seminars total, Essential Principles of Signal Integrity on Sept 29 and 30 that costs $1,895 or $1500 if you are a subscriber to Eric’s program. The second seminar is Advanced Signal Integrity Design on Oct 1 and 2, for the same price and the third seminar is Multi Giga Bit Design on Oct 6 and 7 also for $1,895 or $1500 if you are a subscriber to Eric’s program. All attendees will get a free copy of Eric’s new book on signal integrity.

Also, if you sign up on his web site you can watch the free web seminar No Myths Allowed. The topic is stack-up design for differential pairs, and it will air on Sept. 16, 2009, at 1:00 PM EST. Eric also has a little pop quiz question at the bottom of his web page.

Back to the three seminars, the content is as follows:

Essential Principles of Signal Integrity

Build your engineering intuition with this two-day class designed and offered by Signal Integrity Evangelist Dr. Eric Bogatin. In this introductory class, the math is stripped away to reveal the underlying truth of how interconnects affect signal integrity. The most essential principles of signal integrity will be introduced and reviewed, including principles of:

• Characteristic Impedance
• Ground bounce and cross talk
• Reflections
• Bandwidth
• Inductance
• Power delivery network design
• Impedance
• Differential Pairs

Each of these principles is illustrated by examples of measurements or simulations using structures such as C packages, connectors, printed circuit boards and cables.

What You’ll Gain

The fastest way to find, fix and prevent signal integrity problems is to identify the problems to avoid, find heir root cause and, based on the principles underlying them, establish design guidelines that eliminate hem right from the start. The purpose of this class is to introduce this process and build your engineering intuition. By the end of this class, you will have a strong physical feel for:

• What characteristic impedance really is and how geometry and material properties affect it.
• What inductance really is and how physical design affects it.
• What ground bounce is, how does it arise, and what can be done by design to minimize it.
• What differential impedance really is and how design affects it.
• What decoupling capacitors do in the PDN
• What the most important rules of thumb are that should be used every day.

Advanced Signal Integrity Design

Have you ever asked a signal integrity question and gotten the answer “it depends?” Find out how to answer “it depends” questions in this two-day class, designed and offered by Signal Integrity Evangelist Dr. Eric Bogatin. You will learn how to incorporate analysis techniques to add engineering discipline to your design process and eliminate signal integrity problems from your next product.

After this class, you will be able to:

• Design transparent vias
• Control cross talk and ground bounce
• Select the best termination strategy
• Engineer a cost effective PDN
• Optimize differential pair design
• Choose the right routing topology
• Reduce EMI
• Minimize impact from discontinuities

This class is for hardware or circuit design engineers who must solve layout, circuit, component selection and design problems on a regular basis.  Engineers who do not have a firm understanding of the basic concepts of signal integrity are advised to take our EPSI (Essential Principles of Signal Integrity) class.

Multi Giga Bit Design

This two-day class demonstrates the right way to design Multi Giga Bit (MGB) systems with bit rates from 1 to 12 Gbps.

It is no longer cost effective to only focus on interconnect design. The features of the silicon, such as on-die termination, pre-emphasis, and equalization are just as important in creating the most cost effective system.

In this class, we identify the most important interconnect design features, examine how the system of silicon and interconnect choices can be optimized together, and thoroughly review the techniques to engineer them for acceptable performance.

This class is for hardware or circuit design engineers whose mission is to successfully develop high speed serial link based products.  Engineers who do not have a firm understanding of the basic concepts of signal integrity are advised to take our EPSI (Essential Principles of Signal Integrity) class.

If you want to be your company’s expert on signal integrity or perhaps you harbor ambitions to be a signal integrity consultant yourself, you should check out Eric’s seminars. I see people from all over the western states coming to his Silicon Valley classes. If you are laid off then you will have something to put on your resume and if you aren’t, well having these classes under your belt should make you a lot more confident your company will not lay you off in the future.