Attenuation Measurement Technique for Printed Circuit Board Traces in a Production Environment

In this paper we explore an attenuation measurement technique for PCB traces that is simple, robust, and quick enough to be a viable solution for a printed circuit board production environment. The technique is based on time domain reflectometry and transmission (TDR/T) measurements of two traces of different length. The result is the trace attenuation with respect to frequency. The technique combines well-known time and frequency domain algorithms. Comparison of experimental data to alternative time and frequency domain approaches verify the proposed technique up to 15 GHz. The importance of a low reflection signal launch design is discussed