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PCB Designer Needs RF Help

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sjm1027

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Hello,
I am a PCB Designer of almost 30 years and have a question. The company I work for purchased an RF company and I have to support the Engineers in our group. I have a few designers working for me and I would like to get us all up to speed on learning good RF design practices. Can any of you tell me where to go to get some good information on PWB RF Design. Remember we are not Engineers we are PCB Designers. We need books that explain in simpler terms what type of shielding and via patterns are needed. If any of you know of books, Web pages or classes I would appreciate the information.

Thanks
Steve
 

Below are a few good books out of many.

If you are looking for a "cookbook" of RF PCB layout - it doesn't exist. If it did, I wouldn't recommend using it. PCB layout for RF should be done with engineering knowledge of the desired performance tradeoffs. There are a lot of "rules of thumb" that are followed blindly by lazy designers. Boards they produce are seldom top performers, and nothing of which to be proud.

A couple of good starters:

Signal Integrity Issues and Printed Circuit Board Design
by Douglas Brooks

Emc & the Printed Circuit Board: Design, Theory, & Layout Made Simple
by Mark I. Montrose

Printed Circuit Board Design Techniques for EMC Compliance : A Handbook for Designers (IEEE Press Series on Electronics Technology)
by Mark I. Montrose
 

do y design the RF PCB?the most important thing about the rf PCB is the characteristic impedence of every trace,then the other is almost the same!
 

I have completed 2 pcb designs using RF technology. I just need to know what rules a pcb designer needs to look for. Shielding, spacings via patterns, stitching planes. All that good stuff.

Steve
 

Do you work on RF ICs or discrete RF designs?
in discrete RF disign the layout is part of the design itself, while the RF IC layout is more simple.
Just keep a ground plane as large as you can directly under the IC (usually all the 2nd layer is gnd). keep it as "close" as possible (small vias and so on).
Where you need to let RF signal go through you should use transmission lines (microstrips, CPW ...), for the rest follow the indications given by the designers, they are the one who knows better the design itself!
Avoid loops in power supply, use decoupling capacitors close to supply pins and give to you design a good flexibility: a lot of problems can be solved in the lab.
There are a lot of other issues, but I think that maybe specific questions will help.
Bye
Mazz
 

Hi all

In my company the pcb layouter should be aware of straightforward EMC rules etc. They have followed a "beginners" EMC course but the only guy that can advice the layout of a board is the elec designer because he knows all the issues.
A pcb designer need to implement what the engineer says in a way that respects design rules for manufacturability. Especially for RF and EMC. Also the engineer need to make at least a rough "floorplan" how he thinks to handle EMC and RF. And must choose the technology (amount of pb layers etc).
Without a floorplan and technology review, our pb dept just does not even start with the layout.

So, in short, it is better to lay down the responsibilities for good pb design where they should be: the elec designer and NOT the pb layouter.

rgds

Mike
 

I am RF engineer from Asia. As I know, RF engineer are required to do PCB layout by their own. It's not recommended to give a schematics to PCB designer and let them help to do PCB layout. Concerning EMC problem, you can still find some books for reference. However, like RF coupling, microstripline's impedance...etc, it requires RF knowledge and experience to handle. So you are better to work with your company's RF engineer to do the PCB layout. Or ask them to give you a briefing before you start to do the layout.
 

I have expriences on RF/MMIC design and now developing Analog/Digital platform. I thoroughly agree with katykaty3 for performance critical product. However RF/Microwave design lean much to simulation tools.
Only reading a book on the introduction of RF engineering and testing several simulation example(like Ansoft's) can help you get much knowledge on RF PCB design. Pratically in RF boards (<6GHz), critical issues are not RF path design but signal/power integrity as like analog board I think.

good luck
 

You may also want to read this book for starter:

"High-Speed Circuit Board Signal Integrity" by Stephen C. Thierauf
published in 2004 by Artech House, Inc., ISBN: 1-58053-131-8
 

In my opiniion, you should have an overview of the knowledge of the MW first, or you will be confused by those so-called rules of thumb.
 

sjm1027 said:
Remember we are not Engineers we are PCB Designers.

Thanks
Steve
Click to expand...

One important thing: You did not care as much in regular PCB what is the size. In RF PCB size will be strict. You will sinthesize the size eventually.

I am attaching a picture of LineCalc which is one tool you possibly will use to synthesize RF PCB sizes (mils, cm does not matter).

Good luck
 

Anyone have this book ?

You may also want to read this book for starter:

"High-Speed Circuit Board Signal Integrity" by Stephen C. Thierauf
published in 2004 by Artech House, Inc., ISBN: 1-58053-131-8
 

Puppet1 said:
Anyone have this book ?

You may also want to read this book for starter:

"High-Speed Circuit Board Signal Integrity" by Stephen C. Thierauf
published in 2004 by Artech House, Inc., ISBN: 1-58053-131-8
Click to expand...


I will post it in EDA E-books Upload/Download.
 

HI
Maybe this is helpful for you

attachment deleted by davorin
Reason: Available at: **broken link removed**
Read rules before posting/uploading!!
Next time warning!!
 

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