High Frequency Measurements

This course delivers practical knowledge for signal integrity design troubleshooting and verification that can be used immediately on the job. Electronic engineers from all fields will find this course useful.

The "High Frequency Measurements" course covers a broad range of topics from measurement techniques to PWB and chip package design and troubleshooting issues. The course and its many experiments tie in well with Howard Johnson's High-Speed Digital Design courses.
This course describes in depth how to measure signal and noise in high speed digital and analog circuits. These measurements are then used to characterize high speed effects in electronic circuits including design verification and troubleshooting. Sources of measurement error are discussed. The measurement techniques are related to design issues to improve signal integrity, equipment EMC performance, and improve the overall reliability of electronic systems.

These days it is very important to be able to sort through the advertising claims to use the right measurement equipment for the job.

This is especially true for active differential probes which may not be giving you accurate measurements unless you understand their design criteria. Just using a major brand does not mean the probe will work for your case, even if the advertising says it will. The result is increased cost of your designs as the effect is often a reading of noise that is significantly larger than what is in the circuit.
Emphasis is placed on delivering practical knowledge to SI and circuit designers that can be used immediately on the job. Some class time is reserved to discuss problems and interests of those attending. Each seminar delivery is modified to fit the interests of the attending students.

Instructional Methods

The course includes a combination of teaching methods including lecture, live experiments, live computer simulations, still pictures of experiments with results, and video. The combination of methods combined with Mr. Smith's enthusiastic presentation style helps the students learn and enjoy the course.

Who is it for?

All circuit designers (especially those involved with signal integrity issues), design supervisors, and manufacturing test engineers.

Prerequisites

Benefits

• Understand the subtleties and effects of high frequency measurement techniques and their application to signal integrity, system performance, and EMC
• Learn to locate and fix difficult signal quality or noise problems in a design
• Understand and apply techniques for measurement verification to ensure accurate signal measurements
• Learn about noise related reliability problems in system and board design
• Apply high frequency measurement techniques to signal integrity, operational, and EMC problems to improve the reliability of a design
• Learn good circuit design and signal integrity/EMC principles and to avoid common and unusual design problems
• Learn construction techniques for useful laboratory probes that often outperform expensive commercial probes for signal measurements
• Develop the ability to spot limitations of measurement apparatus from the "fine print" in measurement apparatus and probe specifications

For more information on the upcoming course or to schedule an appointment with Doug Smith, please call Renee Mitchell at 925.673.0225 or email Renee at renee@esdrmv.com.