Anritsu and Isola conducted high-speed signal integrity demonstrations during DesignCon 2015, January 28-29 in Santa Clara. The technical display featured the VectorStar™ premium family of vector network analyzers (VNAs) from Anritsu and advanced dielectric materials from Isola to showcase how to overcome signal integrity challenges, such as data and clock synchronization and matching impedance, associated with engineering dielectrics.
During the live demonstrations in the Isola booth, the importance of the VectorStar VNA’s 70 kHz to 70 GHz frequency coverage in achieving highly accurate S-parameter measurements was shown. At microwave frequencies, the dimension of dense PCB packages/interconnects and other micro-scale features begin to approach the same order of magnitude as the high-speed signal wavelength. At DesignCon, the demonstration with Anritsu showed how these signal integrity design challenges could be overcome by accurately measuring and characterizing material parameters. The broad span allows engineers to create more accurate models. The exceptional electrical and thermal-mechanical characteristics of the Isola Tachyon-100G resin system in 40 Gbps PCB package design were also highlighted in the demonstrations.
Anritsu showed the importance of S-parameter analysis and how using a VNA with wide frequency coverage can improve models to reduce design turns that can cause schedule delays and ultimately adversely affect product performance. With broad frequency coverage from 70 kHz to 70 GHz the VectorStar provides engineers with greater confidence in their cutting-edge designs. The VectorStar VNA has the industry’s broadest frequency span from a single coaxial test port, covering 70 kHz to 70 GHz in a single instrument and 70 kHz to 145 GHz in a broadband configuration. With the VNA, the highest performance pulse measurements in the industry can be achieved using the proprietary PulseView™ which offers 2.5 ns pulse resolution with 100 dB dynamic range.
Isola’s Tachyon-100G resin system utilizes spread glass and reduced profile copper to mitigate skew and improve rise times, reduce jitter, and increase eye width and height. Use of ultra smooth copper is enabled by very high adhesive bond between the resin and the metal. Tachyon-100G has a nominal dielectric constant (Dk) of 3.02 that is stable between -55° C and +125° C up to 40 GHz. Tachyon-100G also offers a very low nominal dissipation factor (Df) of 0.0021.
