The present disclosure relates to printed circuit board grounding structures.
Serialized/Deserializer (Serdes) data rates are increasing rapidly, and signal integrity (SI) presents a design challenge for system performance. SI performance will be degraded over longer or degraded channels. SI engineering addresses system performance from the internal connections of an integrated circuit (IC), through the chip package, the printed circuit board (PCB), the backplane and the inter-system connections.
One key parameter to evaluate channel performance is Insertion Loss to Crosstalk Ratio (ICR). Crosstalk optimization is very important in system design. On the PCB, crosstalk comes from trace routing, the chip pinfield (and fan-out vias), the connector footprint, the via pattern, etc. Increasing the distance between aggressor and victim channels and including ground vias are techniques that may be used to decrease crosstalk in ball grid arrays (BGA), pinfield areas, and board-to-board connector pinfield areas. In other words, more ground vias are added or the space between PCB elements is increased to decrease crosstalk. However, it is difficult to have enough space in current high density designs to provide both sufficient crosstalk performance and a sufficient number of signaling conductors.
In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to an apparatus including: a semiconductor device substrate material; a first signal conductor incorporated into the semiconductor device substrate material; a second signal conductor incorporated into the semiconductor device substrate material; and a ground conductor incorporated into the semiconductor device substrate material between the first signal conductor and the second signal conductor, wherein the ground conductor includes a first elongated portion and a second elongated portion arranged at an angle relative to the first elongated portion.
In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to a method including: forming a first signal conductor in a semiconductor device substrate material; forming a second signal conductor in the semiconductor device substrate material; and forming, in the semiconductor device substrate material, a ground structure between the first signal conductor and the second signal conductor, wherein the ground structure includes a first elongated portion and a second elongated portion arranged at an angle relative to the first elongated portion.
In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to an apparatus including: a semiconductor device substrate material, and a repeating pattern formed in the semiconductor device substrate material, wherein the repeating pattern includes at least one signal conductor and at least one ground conductor, wherein the at least one ground conductor includes a first elongated portion and a second elongated portion arranged at an angle relative to the first elongated portion.
As switch bandwidth increases, the number of serializer/deserializers (serdes) and their speeds are increasing in the chip. To provide 102.4 T switch bandwidth, 512 lanes of 224G serdes may be leveraged. With such high density (i.e., large number of serdes) and high speeds, signal integrity designs that achieve high performance for insertion loss, reflections and crosstalk are challenging. In order to provide a low level of crosstalk and a low level of reflections, spacing between ground and signal vias may need to be smaller than a quarter wavelength of the Nyquist frequency.
Ground vias are widely used in printed circuit board design and package design to decrease crosstalk. The conventional ground via shape is circular. Considering limited space, it becomes more difficult to add ground vias to, for example, ball grid arrays (BGAs) and connector areas. Even outside the BGA area, adding more ground vias impacts routing space, especially for current high density systems. Real-estate in routing areas is very precious. Therefore, adding additional circular ground vias to a routing area may negatively affect routing area design.
As data rates increase, crosstalk requirements are also becoming more stringent. In a 50G Pulse Amplitude Modulation 4-Level (PAM4) system it may be acceptable for near end crosstalk (NEXT) to be around −50 dB and far end crosstalk (FEXT) to be around −40 dB. But for 112G (and beyond) or 224G systems, this level of crosstalk is not acceptable. For example, illustrated in
Specifically,
Accordingly, in order to improve crosstalk in a particular area, the techniques disclosed herein provide a new ground via structure that has a “+” or “X” shape instead of the traditional circle via shape. Other via shapes according to the disclosed techniques may include “V,” “L” or “T” shapes, among others. The via structure of the disclosed techniques is characterized in that it has a first elongated portion that is arranged at an angle relative to a second elongated portion. Accordingly, illustrated in
For example, x-via 205a has a “+” shaped formed by first elongated portion 210a intersecting second elongated portion 215a at a right angle. X-via 205b differs from x-via 205a in that first elongated portion 210b intersects second elongated portion 215b at an angle other than 90°, thereby providing x-via 205b with an “X” shape. X-via 205c has an “L” shape because first elongated portion 210c is arranged at a right angle relative to second elongated portion 215c, but where first elongated portion 210a and second elongated portion 215a of x-via 205a intersect at their respective midpoints, the end of first elongated portion 210c abuts an end of second elongated portion 215c. X-via 205d is provided with a “T” shape because an end of first elongated portion 210d intersects the midpoint of second elongated portion 215d. Finally, x-via 205e is provided with a “V” shape because an end of first elongated portion 210e abuts an end of second elongated portion 215e at an angle other than 90°.
As explained in detail below, using ground vias shaped like one or more of x-vias 205a-e in combination with circular signal vias results in dramatically improved crosstalk when compared with ball map patterns with circular ground vias. Specifically, the ground vias are provided with the shapes of x-vias 205a-e to provide additional isolation in the multiple directions defined by the intersection of the elongated portions of x-vias 205a-c.
Illustrated in
The ball map pattern 300 of
Accordingly, as illustrated in
It has been found that ground x-via structures benefit crosstalk performance dramatically because more isolation is provided by the ground x-via in both directions (i.e., the directions defined by the elongated portions of the ground x-via) when compared with circular ground vias. For example, illustrated in
The use of the disclosed ground x-vias also provides a cost effective solution for 224G and 112G applications, and beyond. The ground x-vias may allow for normal printed circuit board manufacturing processes to be used to address challenging signal integrity problems. For example, some high density designs require the use of high-density interconnect (HDI) sequential lamination manufacturing techniques, which can increase costs and manufacturing complexity. The ground x-via structure techniques disclosed herein, on the other hand, can be manufactured by normal drill processes. The x-via drill processes may introduce some additional manufacturing time compared to standard circular manufacturing, e.g., using two drill processes per ground via instead of one. However, the manufacturing process may not be otherwise more complicated or involved. Accordingly, the cost added in implementing the ground x-vias is limited.
Furthermore, there is no limit to where the ground x-via structures may be used on the printed circuit board—the use of x-vias is not limited to the BGA area. Illustrated in
Beginning with
Illustrated in
With reference now made to
Turning to
With reference now made to
Flowchart 900 continues in operation 915 in which a ground conductor is formed in the semiconductor device substrate material. The ground structure is formed between the first signal conductor and the second signal conductor. Additionally, the ground structure is formed such that it includes a first elongated portion and a second elongated portion arranged at an angle relative to the first elongated portion. Accordingly, operation 915 may be embodied as the formation of a ground x-via as described above with reference to
While not illustrated in
In summary, the advantages of the disclosed ground x-vias include:
Furthermore, the ground x-via structure can be used for any signal crosstalk reduction, not only for high speed differential signals. Ground x-via structures may be used for parallel bus, clock, inter-integrated circuit and other analog signal crosstalk improvement, isolation and shielding as well.
Accordingly, in some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to an apparatus including: a semiconductor device substrate material; a first signal conductor incorporated into the semiconductor device substrate material; a second signal conductor incorporated into the semiconductor device substrate material; and a ground conductor incorporated into the semiconductor device substrate material between the first signal conductor and the second signal conductor, wherein the ground conductor includes a first elongated portion and a second elongated portion arranged at an angle relative to the first elongated portion.
In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to an apparatus, wherein the first signal conductor includes a first circular signal via and the second signal conductor includes a second circular signal conductor.
In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to an apparatus, wherein the ground conductor includes a ground via.
In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to an apparatus, wherein the first elongated portion and the second elongated portion form an “X” shape or a cross shape.
In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to an apparatus, wherein the first elongated portion and the second elongated portion form an “L” shape, a “V” shape or a “T” shape.
In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to an apparatus, wherein the first signal conductor includes a first signal via of a first differential pair of signal vias and the second signal conductor includes a first signal via of a second differential pair of signal vias.
In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to an apparatus, wherein the apparatus includes a ball grid array.
In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to an apparatus, wherein the apparatus includes a board-to-board connection area of a printed circuit board.
In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to an apparatus, wherein the apparatus includes a backplane connector area of a printed circuit board.
In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to an apparatus, wherein the apparatus includes a high speed digital change layer.
In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to a method including: forming a first signal conductor in a semiconductor device substrate material; forming a second signal conductor in the semiconductor device substrate material; and forming, in the semiconductor device substrate material, a ground structure between the first signal conductor and the second signal conductor, wherein the ground structure includes a first elongated portion and a second elongated portion arranged at an angle relative to the first elongated portion.
In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to a method, wherein forming the ground structure includes drilling the first elongated portion in the semiconductor device substrate material and drilling the second elongated portion in the semiconductor device substrate material.
In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to a method, wherein forming the first signal conductor includes forming a first circular via in the semiconductor device substrate material, and wherein forming the second signal conductor includes forming a second circular via in the semiconductor device substrate material.
In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to a method, wherein forming the ground structure includes forming the first elongated portion and the second elongated portion in an “X” shape or a cross shape.
In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to a method, wherein forming the ground structure includes forming the first elongated portion and the second elongated portion in an “L” shape, a “V” shape or a “T” shape.
In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to an apparatus including: a semiconductor device substrate material, and a repeating pattern formed in the semiconductor device substrate material, wherein the repeating pattern includes at least one signal conductor and at least one ground conductor, wherein the at least one ground conductor includes a first elongated portion and a second elongated portion arranged at an angle relative to the first elongated portion.
In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to an apparatus, wherein the at least one signal conductor includes a circular via.
In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to an apparatus, wherein the repeating pattern forms a ball grid array pinfield.
In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to an apparatus, wherein the repeating pattern forms a board-to-board connector area or a backplane connector area of a printed circuit board.
In some aspects, the techniques described herein relate to an apparatus, wherein the repeating pattern forms a high speed digital change layer.
Note that in this Specification, references to various features (e.g., elements, structures, nodes, modules, components, engines, logic, steps, operations, functions, characteristics, etc.) included in ‘one embodiment’, ‘example embodiment’, ‘an embodiment’, ‘another embodiment’, ‘certain embodiments’, ‘some embodiments’, ‘various embodiments’, ‘other embodiments’, ‘alternative embodiment’, and the like are intended to mean that any such features are included in one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, but may or may not necessarily be combined in the same embodiments. Note also that a module, engine, client, controller, function, logic or the like as used herein in this Specification, can be inclusive of an executable file comprising instructions that can be understood and processed on a server, computer, processor, machine, compute node, combinations thereof, or the like and may further include library modules loaded during execution, object files, system files, hardware logic, software logic, or any other executable modules.
It is also noted that the operations and steps described with reference to the preceding figures illustrate only some of the possible scenarios that may be executed by one or more entities discussed herein. Some of these operations may be deleted or removed where appropriate, or these steps may be modified or changed considerably without departing from the scope of the presented concepts. In addition, the timing and sequence of these operations may be altered considerably and still achieve the results taught in this disclosure. The preceding operational flows have been offered for purposes of example and discussion. Substantial flexibility is provided by the embodiments in that any suitable arrangements, chronologies, configurations, and timing mechanisms may be provided without departing from the teachings of the discussed concepts.
As used herein, unless expressly stated to the contrary, use of the phrase ‘at least one of’, ‘one or more of’, ‘and/or’, variations thereof, or the like are open-ended expressions that are both conjunctive and disjunctive in operation for any and all possible combination of the associated listed items. For example, each of the expressions ‘at least one of X, Y and Z’, ‘at least one of X, Y or Z’, ‘one or more of X, Y and Z’, ‘one or more of X, Y or Z’ and ‘X, Y and/or Z’ can mean any of the following: 1) X, but not Y and not Z; 2) Y, but not X and not Z; 3) Z, but not X and not Y; 4) X and Y, but not Z; 5) X and Z, but not Y; 6) Y and Z, but not X; or 7) X, Y, and Z.
Each example embodiment disclosed herein has been included to present one or more different features. However, all disclosed example embodiments are designed to work together as part of a single larger system or method. This disclosure explicitly envisions compound embodiments that combine multiple previously-discussed features in different example embodiments into a single system or method.
Additionally, unless expressly stated to the contrary, the terms ‘first’, ‘second’, ‘third’, etc., are intended to distinguish the particular nouns they modify (e.g., element, condition, node, module, activity, operation, etc.). Unless expressly stated to the contrary, the use of these terms is not intended to indicate any type of order, rank, importance, temporal sequence, or hierarchy of the modified noun. For example, ‘first X’ and ‘second X’ are intended to designate two ‘X’ elements that are not necessarily limited by any order, rank, importance, temporal sequence, or hierarchy of the two elements. Further as referred to herein, ‘at least one of’ and ‘one or more of’ can be represented using the ‘(s)’ nomenclature (e.g., one or more element(s)).
The above description is intended by way of example only. Although the techniques are illustrated and described herein as embodied in one or more specific examples, it is nevertheless not intended to be limited to the details shown, since various modifications and structural changes may be made within the scope and range of equivalents of the claims.