Successful RF PCB Design

11 February 2010 (one-day course).

Send me an email about the next Successful RF PCB Design course as I cannot make this date.

"Very useful, practical advice from presenters with lots of real-world experience."
Jon Glyde, TRL Technology

"Very good - lots of material that, to me, was new."
Stephen Grant, Raymarine Plc

"Very good coverage of all design aspects required to successfully design RF PCBs."
L. Ali, Filtronic Components Ltd

"Excellent content - range of the subject matter was very good."
Jason Riches, Cambridge Broadband Networks

About the course

Modern RF and wireless product design is a highly complex engineering task and the design and layout of the PCB is critical to success. The PCB often contains circuits with conflicting requirements - for example extremely sensitive analogue stages such as RF receivers alongside extremely noisy blocks such as digital processors. The performance of RF components and the PCB substrate also set boundaries on what can be achieved in modern designs. This intensive one-day course provides a thorough introduction to the principles of RF PCB design techniques in an intuitive and practical way.

Who is it for?

RF engineers requiring a system level view of PCB design, RF PCB designers, design engineers and technical managers requiring an overview of the principles of PCB design for RF applications, designers and those with some RF experience but little formal training who wish to broaden their design skill base and baseband and signal processing designers who need to be aware of RF issues.

Course presenters

Tony Richards, Senior Communications Technology Consultant, Plextek Ltd
Steve Williamson, Principal Engineer, Radio Sensing Group, Cambridge Consultants Ltd

Introduction

The challenges of modern RF PCB design.

Analogue RF Systems

Overview of blocks and components found in analogue section of RF systems
Case study: A modern radio receiver
- - Operation, susceptibility to degradation

Digital RF Systems

Overview of blocks and components found in digital section of RF systems
Case study: A modern radio receiver (continued)
- - Operation, sources and characteristics of digital noise
- - Impact of digital noise on radio performance
- - How impact of digital noise varies from system to system

How signals cross couple between circuits

Cross coupling by conduction and radiation
Minimising cross coupling, separation and screening techniques

Minimising impact of digital noise

Origins of supply noise in digital CMOS circuits and its impact on circuit operation
Techniques to achieve optimum supply decoupling
Digital power plane - localised versus total board coverage
High speed digital signal routing techniques

Performance and limitations of physical components

Lumped circuits, Ls, Rs, Cs, transistors, self resonance, Q, parasitics
Distributed circuits - microstrip, stripline, co-planar
Interconnect - ground and power planes, transmission lines, vias
Examples of simulated vs. real implementation

PCB Technology

PCB technology capabilities (track, gap, vias)
Substrate materials, PTH, blind vias, buried vias
PCB stack-ups
Layer routing and component connections
Design tolerances and cost implications
Component assembly considerations
Testability

PCB layout

Decoupling
RF ground plane
Star earth configuration
Current loops

Implementation

Case study: A modern radio receiver (continued)
- - Labelling of schematics
- - Design partitioning prior to layout
- - Routing, order of doing it, guidelines

Examples of potential layout problems

*Attendees should note that there is a small overlap between parts of this course and the Practical RF/Microwave Design course. This is necessary to allow this course to run independently.

Venue

Department for Continuing Education, Rewley House, Oxford

First day registration from 8.30am when course materials will be distributed.

Refreshments from 8.30am on the first day plus two 30 minute breaks during the day and a one-hour lunch break.

The course will begin at 9.00am and end at approximately 5.00pm on each day.

Certification

Delegates will receive a University of Oxford Certificate of Attendance.

Fee options

£395 - course fee.

£275 - reduced fee if you have already attended our Practical RF/Microwave Design course.

Fees include course materials, tuition, refreshments and lunches. The price does not include accommodation.

All courses are VAT exempt.

How to apply

If you would like to discuss your application or any part of the application process before applying, please contact:
Emma Haslam (Course Administrator) - Tel: +44 (0)1865 286958 - Email: electronics@conted.ox.ac.uk

If you would like to pay using a company purchase order / bank transfer, please see the guidance notes below.