RE: [SI-LIST] : Via Capacitances ...

Dave Hoover ([email protected])
Mon, 12 Jul 1999 15:44:54 -0700

Fred,
In a previous life I built a 50 Ohm Probe Card.
The customer then wanted another version with the same
circuit geometry at 75 Ohms. The only difference was to
modify the dielectric's to achieve the desired Zo. The
PCB fab lot was built but the Zo off the PCB's was at
69 Ohms (Zo). Failure analysis revealed that when the
plating was drilled away and the signal trace was milled
(C'Bre'd) down to and tested that the trace really was
75 Ohms. The designer increased the clearances in all
his planes and a new PCB lot was manufactured.
That lot achieved the 75 Ohms. So on thick PCB's with
many plane layers do the vias act like a coax?

Dave
-----Original Message-----
From: Fred Balistreri [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Friday, July 09, 1999 02:10 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [SI-LIST] : Via Capacitances ...

Dr. Edward P. Sayre wrote:
>
> Folks:
>
> It may not be convenient and may stress your personnel or financial
> assests, but this is why you make SI measurements to confirm your results.
> Almost anybody who has made the measurement knows that vias for whatever
> reason turn out to be capacitive. If one checks with Dr. Johnson's book,
> you will find that vias are modeled by both capacitors and inductorance.
> By both measurement and SPICE simulation, NESA has shown this to be true.
> (See papers on our web site.)
>
> (The next sentence should be read in the context that I was one of the
> original students involved in the development of the Method of Moments
> field simulators and know a lot about old and new simulation software.)
> There is ample evidence to show that many field simulator derived SPICE
> models (especially those from 2-D simulators) are often unreliable with
> respect to the component values but usually have the correct topology.
> That is to say, if you make a measurement and then adjust the SPICE
> component values and re-simulating one or twice, you can get satisfactory
> comparisons with the measurements.
>
> Otherwise, there is no way to verify the correctness of field solver
> derived SPICE models for interconnect physical features like vias or
> connectors.
>
> ed sayre
> ============
> At 09:50 AM 7/9/99 -0700, you wrote:
> >Doug
> >
> >I modeled a via some time back with ground planes and
> >clearance holes through it. I had intended to use the capacitance
> >to make up for an inductance and needed 300 ff.
> >
> >I used an OEA field solver Metal and to my amazement there was
> >hardly any capacitance. I surmised that this was due to the small
> >area of the ground planes in tha horizontal direction. Since I needed
> >capacitance I added some big fat ground vias all around the signal
> >via, and got the 300 ff.
> >
> >Also, HP ADS which is the cadillac of RF simulators models vias
> >as inductor, as does Touchstone before EEsof got swallowed up by
> >HP.
> >
> >Ron
> >
> >Douglas McKean wrote:
> >
> >> Could someone give rough estimate
> >> of via capacitance?
> >>
> >> I'm thinking the orientation of the traces
> >> connected to the via have a major impact.
> >>
> >> For instance, an .062 board with a via
> >> from one side to the other, different
> >> capacitances would be had with the two
> >> following constructions ...
> >>
> >> I. Top Trace
> >> -------------
> >> |via
> >> -------------
> >> Bottom Trace
> >>
> >> II. Top Trace
> >> -------------
> >> |via
> >> -------------
> >> Bottom Trace
> >>
> >> Ideas? Comments?
> >>
> >> Regards, Doug McKean
> >>
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> >
> >--
> >Ronald B. Miller _\\|//_ Signal Integrity Engineer
> >(408)487-8017 (' 0-0 ') fax(408)487-8017
> > ==========0000-(_)0000===========
> >Brocade Communications Systems, 1901 Guadalupe Parkway, San Jose, CA
95131
> >[email protected], [email protected]
> >
> >
> >
> >
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> >
>
> +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+
> | NORTH EAST SYSTEMS ASSOCIATES, INC. |
> | ------------------------------------- |
> | "High Performance Engineering & Design" |
> +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+
> | Dr. Ed Sayre e-mail: [email protected] |
> | NESA, Inc. http://www.nesa.com/ |
> | 636 Great Road Tel +1.978.897-8787 |
> | Stow, MA 01775 USA Fax +1.978.897-5359 |
> +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+
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I'm not sure what people mean when they say its capacitive or inductive.
A via consist of capacitance, inductance and resistance. It is true
that for normal PCB designs a via would have a lower impedance profile
than a 50-80 ohm PCB trace when subjected to a TDR pulse. Because of
the sqrt l/c equation one may conclude that the ratio of capacitance
to inductance is higher on a via than a trace. This may be true in
most designs but is by no means a rule. The physical dimension of the
via and the proximity to gnd/pwr planes will determine this ratio.
As mentioned previously, the size of the cutout in the planes when the
via passes through them also has a large impact on capacitance. There
are 2d solvers that do a respectable job of calculating a via model.
We currently are seeing some designs with microvias. Those type of vias
tend to have a ratio that may lend them to be "inductive" when compared
to PCB traces. So I can't believe any of the arguments I've heard so
far. A measurement is only good for the structure you are measuring.
If the structure changes one cannot apply the same rules without first
obtaining more data points. Its always a good sanity check to see if
the measurement results tend to agree with theory as well. High
frequency measurements of this type are not the easiest to make.

Best Regards,

-- 
Fred Balistreri
[email protected]

http://www.apsimtech.com

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