Rick Hartley's Tutorials at PCB2DAY: Insights to Gain
Rick Hartley, a renowned former Senior Principal Engineer at L-3 Avionics Systems, recently shared his expertise in a workshop at the PCB2DAY event, hosted by PCB West and initiated by UP Media. The workshop focused on noise, electromagnetic interference (EMI), and signal integrity control in high-speed Printed Circuit Board (PCB) designs.
Hartley's sessions covered foundational and advanced topics essential for controlling signal and power integrity in complex PCB designs. The topics included noise control and EMI mitigation strategies, signal integrity fundamentals, high-speed PCB environment design techniques, power integrity, and power delivery system design.
Tom Burek, a PCB Designer at Ametek, found Hartley's class particularly helpful in making and putting together a good quality circuit board. Kazuhiro Yokoi, Open Innovation Manager at Fujifilm, also praised the class, stating it was great and useful for avoiding design difficulties.
Hartley emphasised the importance of attendees testing the information they learn to confirm its accuracy. He also warned against blindly using the information given and provided evidence and detailed examples to support his design suggestions.
One of the key takeaways from Hartley's workshop was the importance of understanding controlled impedance in PCB design. Sierra's Controlled Impedance Design Guide, containing 6 chapters, 56 pages, and a 60-minute read, covers topics such as understanding why controlled impedance is necessary, stack-up design guidelines, how to design for impedance, common mistakes to avoid, and more.
The energy in a PCB transmission line is not in the voltage nor the current, according to Hartley. Instead, he believes the energy is carried by the fields. This concept was also covered in the PCB Transmission Line eBook, which discusses topics such as signal speed, critical length, and analyzing a PCB transmission line.
In addition to the workshop, the Sierra team attended a two-day workshop called PCB2DAY in San Diego on Wednesday, February 22. PCB2DAY will take place in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Chicago, Illinois in the future.
For those interested in understanding more about Sierra's services, a facility tour is available in Sunnyvale, California. Hartley himself travels the world to share his knowledge with designers and engineers, demonstrating his commitment to spreading his expertise.
It is clear that Hartley's workshop provided valuable insights into the complex world of high-speed PCB design, emphasising the importance of signal and power integrity control, and highlighting the dangers of cutting costs by cutting corners.
Controlled impedance technology played a significant role in Hartley's workshop, where he underscored its necessity in PCB design and provided a guide for designing impedance effectively.
Hartley's emphasis on testing the knowledge gained to ensure its accuracy underlines the importance of utilizing advanced technologies such as controlled impedance wisely in high-speed Printed Circuit Board (PCB) designs.
