Differential Pair Routing and Impedence Matching in Pads Router
Differential Pair Routing and Impedence Matching in Pads Router
Differential Pair Routing and Impedence Matching in Pads Router
It is worthwhile to take a look at how we can successfully route a differential signal with a
commercial auto router such as PADS Router� (earlier PADS PowerPCB�). Our purpose is
to route successfully, the circuit shown below.
J1 and J3 are the two connectors that connect two differential signals. C1 is a decoupling
capacitor. For the purpose of learning we will design a 4 Layer PCB stackup. The PCB
stackup is as follows
Layer1
GND
VCC
Layer2
We need to maintain a 100 Ohms differential impedance. The best way to calculate the single
ended or differential impedance is to use a 2D field solver which will give accuracy to the
range of 1 or 2%. However, I assume that we do not have the access to the 2D field solver
and we will use formula method (you can use the website
http://referencedesigner.com/tutorials/si/si_06.php to calculate the single ended impedance)
to calculate the single ended and then differential impedance. Using the formula we get the
following values for a single ended impedance of 55 Ohms
Trace width = 10 mils
Thickness of Dielectric = 7 mils
Trace thickness = 1.0 mils
Er = 4.5
This gives characteristic impedance of single ended trace as 55 Ohms. Our stack up has a
separation of 0.007� between top layer and Ground layer as also between bottom layer and
VCC Layer. The separation between the Power and ground layer is 0.044�. If we take into
account thickness of the soldermask and the copper layers as 0.005� in total, it roughly
makes up 0.063� of board thickness.
Let us now calculate the differential impedance. We will again use the formula method
instead of the 2D field solver. We must bear in mind that the 2D field solver will give better
accuracy. But this method should work as well for the purpose of learning. As an example
using the calculator at http://referencedesigner.com/tutorials/si/si_10.php we get the
following result.
In order to successfully route the signal we should define the design rules. To do that click on
Setup -> Design Rules -> Differential Pairs. You should be able to see something similar to
the figure 8-7.
The length matching can be forces to be set as follows. Note that we have also set the
impedance requirement to be between 50 Ohms to 60 Ohms.
We are now all set to start routing. PADS uses altium design rules to check the differential
traces. You can now check if the differential traces follow the design rules.