Long text about estimating output impedance if you don't have a good simulator at hand, its been very helpful at my work so i'd like to share: It's hard to specify an exact output impedance of drivers since the resistance of the output switches (mosfets in our case) will differ depending on the drive voltage and such. Meaning that lower VCC levels will lead to higher output impedance. If i recall correctly this is not a 100% accurate, but will give you a decent estimate of a drivers output impedance. And as a general rule of thumb for LVC drivers specifically 20-33ohms are usually good. If you change to a different family of drivers you will need to estimate their output impedance too, here is an example that has work well for me with numbers available in all datasheets (also for MCUs!). Using numbers from the "Electrical Characteristics" table in the datasheet, find the output voltage section (Voh, Vol). Under test conditions you will find the output current they used to get the numbers, for the parts used in the video (SN74LVC1G17) you will se that when driving low, when powered from 4.5V, with an output current of 32mA, the pin will read as 0.55V. If you calculate resistance from voltage and current (R=V/I) you get this calculation: 0.55/0.032 = close to 17 ohm. For high drive you will need to calculate the voltage drop inside the driver by taking VCC-Voh (4.5-3.8) = 0.7, which yields 0.7/0.032 = close to 22 ohm. You can do this for the rest of the VCCs listed in the datasheet. As mentioned before, its hard to give a specific number because the impedance comes from a complicated part such as a mosfet or bjt, but you get ball park values at least. 4.5V VCC: drive high: 22 ohm drive low: 17 ohm Which makes a 33 ohm resistor good for a 50 ohm track because: 22+33 = 55 ohm 17+33 = 50 ohm Both which are exactly or close to 50 ohm 2.3V VCC: drive high: 50 ohm drive low: 38 ohm 50+33 = 83 ohm 38+33 = 71 ohm Not 50 ohm, in this case it may be better to not use any external resistance since the average output impedance of going both high and low should be 44 ohms. Or add a 6 ohm resistor to minimize both errors as much as possible. Then again, the numbers we get from doing this calculation is not perfect, and if you do the calculations with numbers where VCC is the same but the output current differs you will also get different impedances (using Vol for the part used in the video, with VCC = 3V, 16mA output current is estimated to be around 25ohm, but with an output current of 24mA you get around 23ohms). It's still worth doing the calculations though, since we have used drivers with around 75 ohm impedance at work before, meaning that any added resistance for a 50 ohm track only make things worse, so long as the resistance is not high enough to slow down the rise time enough that your trace looks relatively short verses your wave length again. And STM32 micro controllers generally have 50 ohm output impedance when using "high drive strength" settings. So no added resistance there too if you are using 50 ohm tracks. You could also try using 20ohm tracks with the SN74LVC drivers, and you should have less issues too.

Excellent! I love these videos. They are very informative and educational. Also, these kinda need to be long, you can't give such a thorough demonstration and explanation in 5 or 10 minutes. That's why your videos are excellent, because you take the time to actually care about what you are doing.

When Feranec thinks of something clever, or something he thinks is clever, he always looks at the camera with that evil smirk, it's hilarious. Lol

I think 2 more improvements can be tested. 1. Tie victim buffer input terminal to ground. 2. Place decoupling caps to all buffers near the supply pins. Thank you so much Robert. By the help of these videos, even we can not simulate our boards, we can visualize the signals while routing. You are our hero thanks again :)

It is just what makes engineering and the physics behind it interesting and worthwhile - the “Oh, wow, now I get it” or “That is great, even better than I thought” that happens for a blink of an eye. I actually learn most valuable things from videos which incorporate these moments - because nothing is better than learning through (contagious) enthusiasm.

Robert Feneral.... I want to thank you in a really big fashion... the input you provide is a huge help.... more engineers and TEACHERs like you that share their knowledge are necessary.... the best awards are granted to your level of commitment.... my best regards to you and to your company

Back in 2016 I was set to design a PCB with 16 pressure sensors hooked up to a uC over a single SPI bus on a distance of over 20cm. Clock 8/9MHz can't remember. Whereas everybody was thinking of a noob project, I mean, 8/9MHz, how low is that 😅, I was already suspicious by intuition, not so much because of the frequency but especially because of the high fanout load. I got myself LT SPICE, took the rule of thumb numbers as 10nH per cm for the traces, don't remember for capacitance, and, for each input, the input impedance stated by the datasheet (roughly 1Meg and 10pF). Started the simulation.... we sat speechless in front of the transient analysis... It was clear it would never have worked without adequate considerations. We added those series resistors here and there, tried various values and managed to eventually get a good signal integrity. 1st PCB release worked perfectly but only thanks to that simulation. That's when I understood how critical things can be at even low frequency and remembered me, at the end, it's not only the frequency, it's the relationship of frequency and impedance ^^

Thank you for another brilliant video! I was just routing some i2s lines that go from an SPDIF receiver to a DSP when watching this. I was thinking about skipping the series resistor because I read somewhere that it didn't really matter that much. I'm very glad I watched this video, and my circuit now has length-matched tracks and series resistors.

Thank you very much for the explanation Robert !

As always. Your videos are a GEM.

Great video Robert, my last PCB was so much better because of your wisdom, the next one will be even better!

Thank you Feranec. you are the best teacher I ever had.

Very useful content! Robert, your work is precious!

Hey thanks Robert! That was very educating

Thank you very much for this! Its an excellent example of reflection which is not a commonly taught subject.

This is such a good video, I'm really glad to have found youtube channels going into more depth on hardware development.

Thank you for providing such a great insight.

Thank you Robert! Really appreciate it!

Very nice video Robert. Thank you for sharing this amazing content!

Дай Бог тебе здоровья, дорогой друг! Очень понятно объяснил. Симуляция просто супер!

The value of this video to me in its density of intuitive understanding of several complex ideas (high frequency signaling, the consequences of component rise and fall times, impedance matching, crosstalk), is so high that I think this is one of the best videos on electronics I have ever seen.

Hey Robert, Thanks for the video. It covers some of the basic SI principles and I'm glad you made this video because it can make my life as an SI/PI Engineer easier if someone like you is approaching something like this. An important thing to mention that you did not is that the IBIS models allow you to also check how the signal will look like directly on the die of the component. Proper IBIS models have package parasitics, and pin parasitics (R L C) added in their models. This means that a signal might look good at the pin (where someone can physically measure with an oscilloscope) but at the die it can fail due to added inductance of the wirebonds and capacitance. Hope this adds some valuabe information :) P.S: I'm glad that someone finally explained why it's not all about frequency but about rise/fall times. I've seen 1MHz signals fail SI because they had 200ps rise/fall times and no terminations.

Another great video by Robert. Thanks again!

Awesome video thanks Robert!

Thank you. Very informative.

Great video Robert!

it was very clear, thank you !

Very nice video Robert!!! Thank you!

I just came across with this channel. Very interesting and clear information. Congratulations.

Great video, learned a ton without getting bored! :D Amazing! Great!

Very interesting and useful. Thanks.

Thank you so much for such great content 🔥🔥🔥 Because of your videos I learnt many things. Thanks again

Very nice video, so interesting! Thank you

Very important video, thanks for making this video 👍

Fantastic, very eye opening

oooooo man, loved it. That's a fantastic video/explanation.

Nice explanation..thanks!!!

So cool video, big thanks!!!

Very nice. Interesting subject and superb presentation/demonstration... Presenting results with longer rise times and fall times is of interest. Thank you.

As Darko Obretan pointed out, the 2GHz wavelength in FR4 would be probably more like 80mm (3150mil) (?). I should use a different calculator, for example like this: www.pasternack.jp/t-calculator-phase-length.aspx

Thank you for your knowledge share

Slowly but surely... thank you Mr. Feranec. 👌 Would have liked to see this simulated in AD and compare it.

This is great. Now i understand it 👍

Really helpful. Thank you

Perfect！！！Thanks！Robert

For me as an electronic engineering student, your videos are very interesting and informative. Greetings from Czech Republic.

Very very good video and knowledge.

Great video once again, thanks! Regarding measuring this on your scope, it's not just about the scope bandwidth but you will need a good probe as well. My cheap 10x probes have about 15pF capacitance, at 100MHz. This translates in putting a load impedance of about 100 ohm (1/(2*pi*f*C)) on the line you are measuring. That should give you quite some effect already as you've now added a partial termination to the circuit!

Thanks Professor

Thank you Robert, it was very useful. Will check your course in Udemy.

Thank you very much sir...

Very interesting and thorough explanation. Thanks, Robert!

Great video, very informative! As always :)

Robert You are incredible

Such a meaningful video for me. I almost forgot that it's the rise/fall time matters rather than the frequency of the signal. That's why I was surprised by the simulation results and think: why 10Mhz signal will cause reflection?? Thanks Robert :)

The reason for using 33 Ohm - you are trying to match the buffers output impedance to 50 Ohm, lets say you have a SN74LVC1G126, when the outputs is low, its parameters are max 0.55V @ 32mA = 17.2 Ohm output impedance. With 33 Ohm you get 50 Ohm :) This also means that this resistor value should be output specific, in order to get 50 Ohm output impedance. The resistor also needs to be placed as closed to buffers output as possible, so it appears as a single impedance.

Very very perfect, tnx a lot

Another good video. As my favorite Prof. (Prof Bogatin) would tell us, noise is all about the rise and fall time- aka the Di/Dt.

Nice explanations of SI basics, the use of sigrity tools in your video is really cool as it show how things works. Also yo show how simulation evolve with change this is really a good idea to understand the feeling of physics behind. Thanks for your video, thanks for your clearly understandable english even for a french guy :)

Nice video. Thanks for saving me a future load of frustration :)

Excellent.

Good job!

wawoooo it is amazing video Robert :-) Thank you very much

Great Video !!!! In my opinion U need to make it with respect to capacity and inductance ... it is like Smith Chart by design of 50 Ohm line on the PCB, if Urs output is 18 Ohm U need to put some termination and to get 50 on line if the line out is 200 U need use Caps in pico to absorb this "energy" from going back but U changing this 200 to 50 in line of inductance and capacity. on the end of line. In RF the One way is to make wider tracks to get more of pF just look for strip-line filters they 100% Use this technique.

excellent videos.

Very impressing education showing us these hidden potholes in circuit design. for me the termination not only reduce the bounce back affect but it should also decrease the velocity of the output so that the first re bounce is not that strong as well i think. my first guess to your solution was to use resistors to reduce the ringing and also use ground plane to reduce the interference but I overlooked the length matching at first but that is rather obvious when you said it. I recall this length matching on boards was initially made to impedance match the traces but that they also serve the role to match the wavelength was less known to me so I actually learned something new here too. I have not built anything yet that works with this frequency but I do make oscillators that runs up to about 100khz or so and this generally won´t give you much problems that easy but I tend to use terminal resistors and also pulldown resistors to ground to reduce the noise between stages sometimes. but what I build is mostly control circuitry for amplifiers and powersupplies, timers and feedback or protection and mode indication stuff which I use for the tube amplifiers I also make for myself.

For the output impedance of the buffer, since you have the IBIS model, put a 50 ohms termination at the ouput and measure the voltage at the resistor 50 ohms relative to ground on simulation. then uses a voltage divider equation and solve for the value of Rseries in the buffer. You can figure out the actual real part of the impedance. Then Zs of the buffer plus series termination should equal the transmission line impedance.

Great video as well as info. Could you pls post a video, how to calculate the resistor values for different signals like SCL,SDA,UART TX/RX etc.

Please make more videos like this!!!!!🙏🙏🙏🙏

That's very interesting study. I have a couple of questions: 1) is the software validated, I mean which is the confidence level in the results. Software clearly show interesting "trends" but what about real measure of peak values? 2) I will be very interested in seeing a real PCB and repeat the same experiment you have proposed in this video. Can you do or can any on your follower do the test and share the plots?

Thanks a lot for this video! It is indeed very useful! You are a very good teacher! A question for you, would it be even better to add 50R resistor to your buffers inputs? thanks again for this!

as you see bevor 2 years age i saw this Vedio but i still seeing it ....Very informative Video

You did awesome :-)

Thanks

Wow, thanks!!

Thank you Robert for your research work! What a role the wire capacitance has for this kind of distortions?

Very nice and useful video Robert. I am curious about some tips to use on wireless networks like Bluetooth, wifi and zigbee for example. Thank you

Great video as always!! :-) May I please ask you what gear is being used to test impedance on already existing boards that have some strange artifacts?

Great 👍 👌

Great!!!👏👏👏

Thanks for the video. Can you offer different simulation programmes?

Great video again 👍, one question though... will simulation results change considering the layout of buf input 1 and buf input 2 as they are routed at right angles ?

So shortly: Lenght matching eliminates ringing. Changing stack-up moves impedance closer to 50 Ohm. Resistor is decreasing difference when impedance changes between buffer and track.☝️ And its only problem, when lenght is close to wavelenght of frequency generated by rising edge.

yes, that's interesting!

Hands down this is your best video so far!!!! It shows how much we've all learned thanks to your previous videos. Really, really good one. Thank you, Robert. There's one thing still bothering me, and it's your explanation as of why the dumping resistors improved the signal quality: was it really because you've got closer to the "magic" 50 ohms value, or was it because you've lowered the rising/falling time of the signal by creating an RC filter?

Thanks Robert for these videos. It’s very informative. In this video I understand ringing is because of not impedance Matching and also length of the tracks should not exceed based on the rise or fall time calculation but how did cross talk reduce in this video ? I understand improvement in ringing eventually helped cross talk but what do we need to do to reduce cross talk increase distance between aggressor and victim ?

In many situations, where the rising/falling time is too faster than needed in the application, slow it down by modifying the GPIO settings (configure output strength) or simply adding a small capacitor. The critical length is significantly increased.

The scope probe can add capacitance to the trace you are measuring.

A deep dive into the ratsnest of antennas. Very nice.

Thank you for the video! Great job as always! I have a very nasty question though - how much does Sigrity cost? :)

Great job Robert, thank you for such an educational tutorial. on 31:52 You mentioned that you believe one side matching is enough to remove ringing. I know that a proper Termination resistor removes the ringing. But how to be sure if there is a termination resistor in high impedance buffer input? It would be great if you make a video about NanoVNA usage for impedance checking or a video about how to design shields for noise immunity

Thank you for sharing. Impedance matching is the key. It's unrealistic to expect such a short trace for most of ICs input and output on a complicated PCB, so short in/out PCB trace solution isn't a practice solution to resolve the noise issue.

Hi Robert, great video, it's also recommended to connect - x(10-200)pF capacitor in addition to the 33ohm resistor, can we do this sim also in Altium extension?

Nice video

Awesome

Hello, your video was very helpful. I wonder, 33Ohm resistor is used to coordinate impedance with the 50Ohm trace, right? Thank you.

Fyi, if the input capacitance of the buffers gets large (say driving 8 or more buffers in parallel) you can improve the rise time of the signal at the buffer by placing the series termination resistor right in front of the buffer. In this case the track is acting like a critically damped RLC circuit instead of a transmission line.

Thanks again Robert. I wonder what the effect is if the trace length is the same as the wavelength and what happens at (Wavelength/2), /3, /4, /5, etc. in other words at the harmonic intervals. Since antennas often work at 1/4 WL distances, I would think there must be some effect. Worth a try? Signed: Interested.

Great tutorial. Is there a way to know the impedance of the track based on the stackup in Altium?

Thanks for your explanation, it will help me a lot in my next designs. But those simulation softwares u use tho! I hope I can manage to get them , look super helpful but classy. :) thanks Robert!