High Speed Signal Propagation: Advanced Black Magic [Hardcover]

Howard Johnson (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 013084408X | ISBN-13: 978-0130844088 | Publication Date: March 6, 2003 | Edition: 1

High-Speed Signal Propagation: Advanced Black Magic brings together state-of-the-art techniques for building digital devices that can transmit faster and farther than ever before. Dr. Howard Johnson presents brand-new examples and design guidance, and a complete, unified theory of signal propagation for all metallic media. Coverage includes: understanding signal impairments; managing speed/distance tradeoffs; differential signaling; inter-cabinet connections; clock distribution; simulation, and much more.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Raves for Dr. Johnson's previous classic, High-Speed Digital Design!

"....one of the finest efforts to come along in the field of applied high-speed digital design because of its focus on providing tools for the whole design team bringing a high-speed product to life. For all the PCB designers and circuit designers out there, buy it; read it; keep it." -- Dan Baumgartner, Printed Circuit Design

Faster and farther: State-of-the-art signal transmission techniques

In High-Speed Signal Propagation, Howard Johnson and Martin Graham bring together state-of-the-art techniques for building digital interconnections that can transmit faster, farther, and more efficiently than ever before. Packed with new examples and never-before-published high-speed design guidance, this book offers a complete and unified theory of signal propagation for all metallic media, from cables to pcb traces to chips. Coverage includes:

• Managing tradeoffs between speed and distance
• Physical theory of signal impairments: skin and proximity effects, dielectric loss, surface roughness, and non-TEM mode propagation
• Generalized frequency- and step-response models
• Calculation of time-domain waveforms from frequency-domain transfer functions
• Differential signaling: Edge-coupled and broadside-coupled differential pairs, bends, intra-pair skew, differential trace geometry impedance, crosstalk, and radiation
• Inter-cabinet connections: Coax, twisted-pair, fiber, equalizers, and LAN building wiring
• Clock distribution: Special requirements, repeaters, multi-drop clock distribution, jitter, and power filtering
• Simulation: Frequency domain simulation methods, Spice, and IBIS

About the Author

DR. HOWARD JOHNSON has accumulated 30years of experience in digital design, consulting withengineers all over the world. He is the featuredSignal Integrity columnist for EDN Magazine andChief Technical Editor of IEEE—02.3 standards for FastEthernet and Gigabit Ethernet. He frequently conductstechnical workshops for digital engineers at OxfordUniversity and other sites worldwide: www.sigcon.com.

DR. MARTIN GRAHAM is Professor Emeritus ofElectrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at theUniversity of California at Berkeley. He specializes inteaching the design of reliable and manufacturableelectronic systems.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 800 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall; 1 edition (March 6, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 013084408X
• ISBN-13: 978-0130844088
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 7.1 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #267,055 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great subject material, unevenly covered, July 21, 2003

By 

Ozdal Barkan (Mountain View, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: High Speed Signal Propagation: Advanced Black Magic (Hardcover)

I had mixed feelings reading this book. Some sections were so good I was saying, "Bravo, well done" while other sections were so bad, I felt sorry for anyone trying to learn by reading them. (E.g. Ch4 on frequency domain modeling.) The book covers extremely useful material, but in an uneven way. It will especially appeal to readers who want simplified discussions of the ideas rather than deeper more theoretical discussions. For example, crosstalk --one of the most important topics, is covered in a very light manner, recommending use of simulators to obtain accurate results. Compare this with the coverage of the same subject in the remarkable book "Electromagnetic Compatibility" by Clayton Paul. Now, that book is "advanced" and "magical". This book doesn't get into any deep discussions of the fundamentals. It says that current flows in a loop, and inductance is related to loop area. Simple enough. Yet, how do we explain the inductance of the pin of an IC package, which is definitely not a loop? How is the energy-based definition of inductance used by simulators related to this simple definition? Even more fundamental, given that voltage can't be defined in a region where the magnetic field is changing, how come we can use the concept of voltage? (Read Paul Clayton for discussing all these concepts in great detail.)

Many previous articles are included in the book. Although some of them are entertaining (e.g. the pot hole story) most are just disturbances, and even worse, outdated and contradictory to authors later approach. For example, Dr. Johnson spends 3 pages! discussing how close a termination has to be, and drives an equation for the amount of reflection when the ideal termination is slightly away from the source. Later in a witty article the author declares that there is no more any excuse for not using simulation tools. He says "If you have to ask, simulate it." Definitely anybody who is wondering if their termination is close enough can download a free demo copy of PSpice and simulate this quickly and accurately.Nobody is going to use the equation the author drived and there is no new insight or theory developed either.

The author being the editor of the IEEE Ethernet specs, it is quite surprising how many sloppy mistakes there are. (KHz, kHz, Ghz, HZ,Hertz, hertz, pS, ps, ohm, Ohm, V, v, ; with and without spaces after the value are used with no consistency, "it's" is confused for "its" in more than one place, wrong equation numbers, irregular figures, mixed fonts and fonts sizes within the same equation, etc. are common occurrence.)

Despite its problems, this book will be a very useful reference book to people working in the field. Many sections have excellent detailed discussions. For example, performance regions of the transmission line breaking it into lumped, RC, LC, skin effect, dielectric loss, and waveguide dispersion regions is the most comprehensive I have seen. A useful book to add to one's library, but not a book lover's delight.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Signal Propagation by Howard Johnson, January 30, 2010

By 

Gary R. Bosworth "grbosworth" (Malibu, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: High Speed Signal Propagation: Advanced Black Magic (Hardcover)

Quick delivery. Quality product. Filled with essential data. Interesting and illucidating explanations of high-speed electrical phenomenon. An essential publication for all electronic engineer's bookshelves. I am a very happy customer.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars the "signal integrity" bible, May 12, 2007

By 

Douglas L. Datwyler (UTAH) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: High Speed Signal Propagation: Advanced Black Magic (Hardcover)

Dr. Johnson gives signal integrity an identity, and tells you how to conquer a truly "black art" in electronics engineering.

As the data rates of electrical signals go up, the problems this causes are detailed, and solutions are presented that resolve the problems.

If youare doing high-speed digital design, high precision analog design, and want to make it work, this violume sheds light on the "dark" places.