Eric Bogatin: S-Parameters (2-day)

Practical S-parameter measurement and analysis

S-parameters are a powerful way of describing the high frequency properties of interconnects. They have proliferated into many specs, are the output of all field solvers and are the principle description of interconnect measurements. Yet, there is a lot of confusion in the industry because their description is often hidden behind complicated math.

In this practical course, we strip away the math to reveal the hidden wealth of information we can data mine about interconnects from their S-parameters. All techniques we introduce will be applied to S-parameters from both measurement and from simulation. We will leverage both free simulation and analysis tools and a few of the popular commercial tools to show how to take an S-parameter file, view it in the frequency and time domain and make sense of what it tells us.

When signing up to this course you automatically become a subscriber of the Teledyne LeCroy Signal Integrity Academy. Everyone will have access to the additional supplemental training resources on the SI Academy web site and access to all the free simulation tools and examples files. All of the examples shown in class will be available for download from the SI Academy web site.

Current subscribers to the Teledyne LeCroy SI Academy will get a reduced price when signing up.

What’s Included

• Expert training two days
• Comprehensive course material
• Coffee/tea/water + fruit, pastries, and a full lunch
• Signed course certificate

Instructor

The instructor is Eric Bogatin, author of the book “Signal and Power Integrity – Simplified”.

Eric Bogatin runs the Teledyne LeCroy Signal Integrity Academy, at www.beTheSignal.com. Additionally, he is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Colorado – Boulder in the ECEE dept.

Bogatin received his BS in physics from MIT and MS and PhD in physics from the University of Arizona in Tucson. He has held senior engineering and management positions at Bell Labs, Raychem, Sun Microsystems, Ansoft and Interconnect Devices. He has written six technical books in the field and presented classes and lectures on signal integrity worldwide.

In 2011, his company, Bogatin Enterprises, which he founded with his wife, Susan in 1990, was acquired by Teledyne LeCroy. After concluding his live public classes in 2013, he devoted his efforts into creating the Signal Integrity Academy, a web portal to provide all of his classes and training content online, for individuals and for companies.

Accommodation

You can find hotels through hotels.com and similar services. Also, consider if your company has a good hotel deal set up with a specific hotel or chain of hotels.

Content

Day 1

1.       What are S-parameters

• Basic definitions and Applications
• Ports and definition of the terms
• From simulation, from measurement
• Viewing touchstone files
• Plotting in frequency and time domain

2.       Crash course in S-parameters

• Return and insertion loss of uniform transmission lines
• Connection between return and insertion loss in dB
• Impact of launch discontinuities
• Losses and attenuation
• Resonances and what they mean

Lunch

3.       Interpreting S11 in the time and frequency domain

• Impedance profiles
• The TDR
• Masking
• Two common artifacts and how to avoid them
• When high series resistance dominates

4.       Insertion loss and uniform transmission lines

• Phase, time delay and Dk
• When the Z0 is not 50 ohms- port re-normalization
• Total loss
• Intro to hacking and extracting material properties
• Reflection coefficient of a thru path and input impedance

Day 2

1.       Differential S-parameters

• Differential pairs and differential signaling
• Single ended to differential S-parameter conversion
• Insertion loss and coupling
• Differential impedance and common impedance
• Differential TDR

2.        Mode conversion

• The fundamental root cause
• Interpreting mode conversion S-parameter elements
• The signature of the three most common sources of mode conversion
• Typical measurements of mode conversion
• Why simulations rarely show this effect and how to fix it

Lunch

3.       Cross talk

• Single ended in the frequency domain
• Single ended in the time domain and where coupling occurs
• Differential cross talk
• Common to differential cross talk
• Return path discontinuities

4.       The S-parameter check list

• 22 features to look for in every S-parameter file
• The three amigos: reciprocity , passivity and casualty
• Practical de-embedding principles
• How to handle a 100 port S-parameter file
• Forensic analysis
• Leveraging  the Signal Integrity Academy resources

Practical Details

Note: We start late and finish a bit late on the first day, so you may be able to save a hotel night and arrive on the morning of the first day.

Course language is English.