It’s the interconnects that count
Book review: Signal and Power Integrity—Simplified, 2nd ed. by Eric Bogatin.
Signal and Power Integrity—Simplified is one of the better technical books I’ve ever read. I rank it right alongside Doug Smith’s High Frequency Measurements and Noise In Electronic Circuits and Bonnie Baker’s A Bakers Dozen: Real Analog Solutions for Digital Designers. Bogatin really does simplify complex concepts, yet you’ll walk away from this book feeling that you understand how interconnects (connectors, cables, wire bonds, PCB traces, etc.) affect signal integrity at high frequencies. He spends a chapter each on the four important concepts–resistance, capacitance, inductance (self and mutual), and transmission lines—and how they distort signals.
Bogatin, a signal-integrity engineering consultant, doesn’t let you get lost in the math behind these concepts, yet he provides enough to clarify is points. After explaining the basic concepts, Bogatin applies them as he discusses concepts such as attenuation, cross talk, and differential pairs. The second edition adds chapters on S parameters and power-distribution networks. He does so because digital designers can no longer think in the time domain and they must consider how a product’s power distribution can cause signal degradation.
Signal and Power Integrity—Simplified has more of a flow to it than most technical books. Much in the way you learned engineering in school, it builds on concepts from the early chapters and applies them later. In chapter 12, “S-Parameters for Signal Integrity Applications,” Bogatin shows how you can apply S-parameters to transmissions lines, which he discussed on chapter 7. Because of the book’s continuity, you can actually read it from beginning to end and build your knowledge along the way.
