Signal integrity is critical in data-heavy applications requiring ongoing streams of precise data transferred at high bit rates and over long distances. Here are 10 key points to consider when optimizing products for high-speed data transmission.
The emergence of high-speed data transmission and the demand for ever greater bandwidth are driving engineers throughout the connectivity system to optimize their products and ensure that more data can be transmitted quickly, reliably and securely.
As technology evolves, high-speed interconnect phenomena that designers often used to ignore have begun to dominate performance, and unforeseen problems have arisen that make design far more complex. The priority is to avoid distorting any signal sent from A to B.
Signal integrity is critical in data-heavy applications requiring ongoing streams of precise data transferred at high bit rates and over long distances, e.g., IoT, Industry 4.0 and connected ecosystems. Distortion, noise, crosstalk and insertion/return losses should be avoided, since they degrade electrical signals causing errors to occur and a device or system to fail.
When aiming for seamless connectivity, it is advisable to consider connector performance to be merely one part of the equation. Success in data transmission also depends on the quality and performance of cables, the cabling-device interface and the quality of both transmitter and receiver.
Multiple parameters determine balanced cabling performance. Key factors are NEXT (near-end crosstalk), FEXT (far-end crosstalk), attenuation (insertion loss), and reflection (return loss). Ultimately, signal integrity is affected by every single decision made when designing a cable-connector assembly.
The 10 key points to consider when optimizing products for high-speed data transmission are:
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- Transmission line
- Signal degradation
- Impedance matching
- Crosstalk
- Vector Network Analyzer (VNA)
- Geometrical optimization
- Impedance measurement
- De-embedding
- SERDES simulation
- Link optimization
>> Explore this topic further in Fischer Connectors’ article published in Connector Supplier’s eBook entitled ‘High Speed with Signal Integrity’ (August 2022)
