The coronavirus pandemic accelerated digitization in many industries: travel, entertainment, business meetings and many more. The Samtec blog has disruption virtual tradeshows are having.
On the other hand, there were virtual trades shows before COVID-10. EDI CON Online was one of the early pioneers in 2019 (a lifetime ago?). As with many technical events, attendees want access to key thought leaders. Thus, EDI CON Online was born. They came up with the perfect tagline: Where High Frequency Meets High Speed.
So what’s new this year? Like the 2020 event, EDI CON Online features four tracks spread. This year’s tracks are outlined below:
- August 4: 5G/Wi-Fi/IoT Track
- August 11: PCB/Interconnect Track
- August 18: Radar/Automotive/SATCOM
- August 25: Signal Integrity/Power Integrity
Samtec technical experts will be presenting workshops, keynotes and technical sessions. Who are the Samtec speakers? What topics will be covered?
PCB/Interconnect Design Track Online Workshop
Ted Ballou, Sr. SI Engineer at Samtec, kicks off Samtec’s participation in EDI CON 2021. Ted will discuss the topic Ground Stitching and Copper Balancing for High Performance SI Evaluation Kits.
High-performance I/O interfaces offer small design margin for physical channel impairments such as routing impedance discontinuities and crosstalk. Mitigation techniques commonly deployed in single-purpose test/evaluation boards include thieving pads and stitching vias.
For critical high-speed nets, best practices combine these as “stitched thieving” in a parade-route configuration along the routing net. This approach is not trivial, and it becomes more challenging as designs complexity increases such as in multi-layer PCBs with BGA breakouts.
In this workshop, Ted Ballou details strategies for managing layout challenges and addressing practical design constraints. Additionally, he will provide an apples-to-apples comparison of measured results with “before” and “after” PCB design iterations.
SI/PI Track Keynote
Samtec will also be presenting the EDI CON Online Signal Integrity/Power Integrity Track Keynote. Matt Burns, Technical Marketing Manager at Samtec, will discuss Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt – An Irreverent View of 224 Gbps Channel Data Rates.
The road to 224 Gbps channel data rates is filled with twists, turns and fender-rattling potholes. Design challenges including modulation schemes, IC packaging, breakout regions, PCB stack-up, laminate selection, mechanical concerns, thermal mitigation and more are obstacles that must be overcome.
In this keynote, Samtec will review the roadblocks of 224 Gbps performance while presenting novel solutions that exceed the demands of next generation data transmission.
SI/PI Track Technical Session
In an EDI CON Online Technical Session, Scott McMorrow, currently Strategic Technologist at Samtec, will present the timely topic Anatomy, Modeling and Simulation of High Performance Vias: Why It Hasn’t Mattered Until Now.
Drilled vias are an essential component of high-performance design. However, opinions vary on best practices for designing via transitions. The ultimate design goal of maximum performance and minimum crosstalk while maintaining measurement accuracy can be elusive.
In this course, Scott McMorrow will dissect via design, compare via optimization techniques and outline PCB material models necessary for the correlation of simulated and measured results for high-performance vias.
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