Limitations of High-Speed Square Pulses on Printed Circuit Boards

This paper deals with transmission of square pulses by real microstrip line on printed circuit boards characterized by low-pass filtering effect. Three forms of transfer function were considered, i.e. measured curve, approximated curve and ideal low pass curve. Two kinds of distortion, namely shape distortion and energy distortion were investigated. A survey under students testing their knowledge about limitations of signal transmission on printed circuit boards indicated a need to incorporate this topic into the curriculum.