Digital systems are pushing ever further into the mmWave regime, and more designers will need to start understanding how to accommodate high frequency analog signals on digital boards. This is meant to provide wireless functionality in IoT products, mobile products, robotics, and other application areas. Digital designers also need to learn something about signal integrity at RF frequencies as digital signal bandwidths push well into the 10’s of GHz range.
Whether you’re a digital or high frequency analog designer, it pays to know how to work with mmWave frequencies and how to accommodate RF signals in a digital design. RF PCB layout is all about preventing interference between board sections and ensuring sensitive signals do not heavily interfere with each other. If you’re unsure how to get started with a new RF product, including at mmWave frequencies, take a look at our RF PCB layout tips.
Before you start routing anything, you need to place components around your new PCB. This is where smart floorplanning becomes critical; you need to place components and circuit blocks so that EMI between them is minimized. Simply brute-force filtering every signal around the board isn’t going to guarantee signal integrity, and there are more elegant ways to floorplan an RF PCB layout to ensure signal integrity.
There are four primary tasks to undertake when preparing an RF PCB layout:
This type of circuit block arrangement in a PCB layout is typical in mixed signal products and will work at mmWave frequencies.
In the above layout, the important point here is the use of isolation between different circuit blocks and the placement of an antenna section near the board edge. As an example of a commercial mmWave system, the center-fed patch antenna arrays used in 77 GHz radar modules are placed on a separate board, so the antenna board’s ground plane and ground pour provide the required isolation from other board sections. Once you’ve determined where you should place each component in your layout to ensure signal and power integrity, you can start to think about routing your RF PCB.
Just like a high speed digital board, RF PCB layout and routing requires preventing a range of standard signal integrity problems, which becomes quite important in both high speed and RF systems. The same problems that arise in high speed PCBs will also occur in an RF PCB layout, the difference is the relevant frequency range, bandwidth, and sensitivity to noise. When you’re floorplanning your PCB layout, you’ll have to plan on routing and isolating critical RF lines to prevent interference between them. This involves isolating routes and ensuring consistent impedance along a route.
The use of vias in RF PCB layout should proceed with caution. There are a number of points to consider when determining whether to use vias in your PCB layout, but the most important point is the signal frequency. Just like other areas of RF layout, you might need to sacrifice routing convenience in favor of RF signal integrity.
At sufficiently low frequencies, vias on an RF transmission line may not be so important as their input impedance resembles the impedance of the downstream section of transmission line. Assuming all downstream sections are matched, then we don’t need to worry about the impedance of a via. This changes when we look at high frequencies, particularly at mmWave frequencies. The image below shows where parasitics arise in the use of vias in mmWave routing in an RF PCB layout.
When routing mmWave signals through vias, you need to prevent distortion and reflections by minimizing parasitics and backdrilling via stubs to small values.
Many isolation structures have been developed and examined over the recent past, particularly as mobile devices became more ubiquitous and started operating at successively higher frequencies. Now that mmWave products are becoming more common and widely commercialized, designers need more isolation structures than just taking advantage of guard traces and ground planes in a multilayer board. Some options include:
The routing style you choose can have some natural isolation, which is why mmWave PCBs will often use grounded coplanar waveguide routing. Alternative methods are substrate integrated waveguides and mode-selective transmission lines, both of which provide high isolation. Critical traces at mmWave frequencies should use one of these advanced routing schemes as well as isolation techniques to prevent interference between board sections.
The experienced PCB design and layout team at NWES can help you create your next advanced RF PCB layout with advanced routing schemes. We help our private clients, aerospace companies, and the US military stay at the cutting edge with advanced PCB design and layout services. We've also partnered directly with EDA companies and advanced PCB manufacturers, and we'll make sure your next design is fully manufacturable at scale. Contact NWES for a consultation.