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Coupling of through-hole signal via to power/ground resonance and excitation

of edge radiation in multi-layer PCB

Conference Paper  in  IEEE International Symposium on Electromagnetic Compatibility · September 2003

DOI: 10.1109/ISEMC.2003.1236597 · Source: IEEE Xplore

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Coupling of Through-Hole Signal Via to Power/Ground Resonance
and Excitation of Edge Radiation in Multi-Layer PCB
Jun So Pak Jingook Kim Heejae Lee
Dept. of EECS, KAIST. Dept. of EECS, KAIST. Computer System Division,
Daejeon, KOREA Daejeon, KOREA Samsung Corp.
chitoong@eeinfo.kaist.ac.kr youvine@eeinfo.kaist.ac.kr Suwon, Gyeonggi-Do, KOREA
hjlee109@samsung.com

Jung-Gun Byun Joungho Kim

Computer System Division, Dept. of EECS, KAIST.
Samsung Corp. Daejeon, KOREA
Suwon, Gyeonggi-Do, KOREA joungho@ee.kaist.ac.kr
jgbyun@samsung.com

waves to support the TEM wave along the signal trace. In

Abstract
addition to the signal reflection problem, the through-hole
This paper describes the edge radiation of signal power at
signal via excites the electromagnetic waves at the
multi-layer PCB mostly depends on coupling of through-
power/ground planes, since the via is passing across the
hole signal via to power/ground plane, and the coupling
power/ground parallel plate waveguide in the multi-layer
mechanism is the loading effects of power/ground plane
PCB and via has the power/ground parallel plate as a return
impedance on signal return current. It is well known that
current path (Figure 1). Accordingly, depending on the
the variation of power/ground impedance comes from
edge termination condition, material and dimensions of the
power/ground resonance, and the variation range is up to
PCB, standing waves appear with multiple resonance
several tens ohm (Ω). In 50Ω system, this range impedance
frequencies inside the power/ground plane and make a
makes signal input matching worse. Moreover, the
high-impedance return current path. These resonance
transmitted signal is divided two parts, load and
waves are responsible for the open edge radiation from the
power/ground plane. Finally, the assimilated signal power
PCB, and are major part of the edge radiation from the
by power/ground plane is emitted from PCB open edge,
high-speed and high-density multi-layer PCB.
which is a good radiation structure. Above analysis is
shown in this paper by spice modeling of through-hole
signal via and power/ground plane and measuring the near
field strength at PCB edge with/without through-hole
signal via cases. The loading effects are seen in S-
parameters and Input Impedance of signal traces and PCB
edge radiation in |S21| between signal trace and near field
probe. The trace with through-hole signal via case has the
larger radiated emission at PCB edge than without case by
more than 20dB.

Keywords
Through-Hole Signal Via, Return Current, Coupling,
Power/Ground Plane, Resonance, Loading Effects and
Edge-Radiation.
INTRODUCTION Figure 1. Signal Current Path and Return Current Path
of 4-layer PCB. Return Current Path has the Loading
The through-hole signal via enables convenient routing and
Effect by High-Impedance Path of Power/Ground Plane
component placement on the PCB and is used for signal at Resonance.
interconnections when the signal traces are changing the
layers. However, when the high-frequency signal is
transmitted through the through-hole via, the signal However the coupling of the signal from the via to the
encounters discontinuities at reference planes and suffers power/ground resonance have not been thoroughly studied
reflections. It is because the reference plane is not yet. Reliable and accurate electrical model is needed to
continuously guiding the high-frequency electromagnetic explain the excitation of the power/ground resonance and
the edge radiation, and is a crucial requirement to estimate
the performance of the multi-layer PCB design. until driver is deactivated. Namely, the power inside
Furthermore, the suggested model in the previous research power/ground plane is radiated through open edge of PCB
does not considered the absence of the ground plane at the under a maximized power state.
via neck, neglect the impedance variation of power/ground
plane [1]-[3].
In this paper, we have thoroughly investigated the coupling
of the signal to power/ground plane resonance, and the
open edge radiation by the power/ground resonance. To
explain the coupling of the power/ground resonance, we
have proposed a comprehensive SPICE-type circuit model
of through-hole signal via, considering return current path.
The suggested model includes the effect of the via neck
and the coupling effect to the power/ground plane, through
which the via is running across. The via neck is modeled as
a T-type LC circuit, that is selected a microstrip line section
affected by the absence of the ground plane (via neck),
which determine model accuracy in time domain response,
while the excitation of the power/ground plane resonance is Figure 2. Three Independent Networks of 4-Metal layer
modeled as impedance between adjacent planes of via body. PCB due to Skin Depth of Copper. i.e. a Half Oz. Copper
The resonance peaks are well predicted by the suggested has 18 um thickness and a Skin Depth is 9um at 50MHz.
model and the 3D TLM simulations. Perfect ground
reference is replaced by the 3D TLM at each -to-GND
capacitors, which reflects the jumping of return current
path. The model is proven quite well matched to the S-
parameter measurement up to 3 GHz. And, we have
measured the edge radiation from the PCB, and confirmed
that the peak radiation frequencies are well matched to the
power/ground resonance frequencies. We found also that
the coupling to the power/ground is maximized, when the
impedance of the power/ground plane is maximized, which
says that the signal trace has a maximized loading effect.
This is verified with measurement of the PCB edge
radiation, which increases by 25dB at the maximum
coupling.

Power/Ground Plane as a Return Current Path

4-layer PCB has 3 independent networks as Figure 2, since Figure 3. Power/Ground Plane is a Good Return Current
a skin depth of above 50MHz (<9um) is smaller than a Path of Through-Hole Signal Via except for Resonance
Frequency. At Resonance, the Return Current Path has
copper metal plane thickness (>18um). There is no chance
high Impedance up to 40Ω, which is close to a normal
to combine top signal line, bottom signal line with termination condition. (Measured Data of 14cm X 14cm
power/ground plane inside, respectively. But the through- Fr-4 material PCB)
hole signal via can tie 3 independent networks into single
network by return current path as a Figure 1. Therefore a
driver has two loads, which are a receiver and a
power/ground plane. The power/ground plane is a good
return current path (low impedance path) except for
resonance frequency (high impedance path) (Figure 3).
This loading effect of power/ground plane is conceptually
expressed in Figure 4. If the power/ground plane has a
100Ω impedance at resonance, Half of driver input power
is returned to source and the receiver only can take one
eighteenth (-12dB) of input in 50Ω System. On the other
side, the power/ground plane captures the same power as
Figure 4. Loading Effect of Power/Ground Plane on
receiver. This is a critical problem of radiated emission at Driver. This makes signal reflection problem, signal
multilayer PCB. Since the power/ground plane contains power loss at receiver and radiated emission at PCB
resonance frequency component, this is accumulated inside
 open edge. These problems are maximized at expresses the loading effect of power/ground plane by
power/ground plane resonance. return current path. Two planes of power/ground network
is connected by only through-hole signal via and does not
Open Edge Radiation Mechanism have another path (i.e. perfect ground reference) as real
As a previous discussion, the power/ground plane is a load board condition. All signal paths are modeled by forward
of driver. This means that input power is transmitted to current path and return current path. The top and bottom
power/ground plane. Therefore the voltage difference of signal lines are sectioned by 2.5mm length, which is
two planes is composed of DC component, which is shorter than one twentieth of 2GHz wavelength. The
original usage, and AC components, which are from signal power/ground plane is modeled by 3D TLM (3 Dimension
trace coupling. DC component does not make radiated Transmission Lime Method), which is well known as a
emission because of no time varying. Only AC components good prediction method of two plane structure. Through-
make radiated emission at open edge below mechanism [4]. hole signal via is modeled by a single inductance of plated
drill hole and fringing capacitance between itself and
ρ
V = E ⋅ d ---------------------------------------------------(1) planes. The absent reference of signal trace makes via
ρ ρ region more inductive than normal type. Therefore single
M = −2nˆ × E -----------------------------------------------(2)
via causes 14ps time delay at receiver in comparison with
ρ ε ρ e − jkr --------------------------------------(3)
F=
4π v∫∫∫ M
R
dv′ the microstrip line, same length and no through-hole signal
via.
ρ 1 ρ
E = − ∇ × F -----------------------------------------------(4)
ε
ρ 1 ρ
H =− ∇ × E --------------------------------------------(5)
jωµ

V is a voltage difference and d is distance between ground

and power plane at open edge. M is a magnetic current
source along open edge direction. ε and µ are permittivity
and permeability of free-space, respectively. R is a distance Figure 6. the Structure of Through-Hole Signal Via in 4-
layer PCB. The 3 independent networks are merged in
from open edge and ω is an angular frequency. The capped single network.
n’s direction is vertical to open edge area and magnetic
current source’s direction is vertical to both two planes
edge (Figure 4).
The voltage difference of two metals makes E-field (1) and
the radiated field (3,4, and 5) can be predicted by magnetic
current source (2). As power/ground impedance is larger,
voltage difference is larger. And radiated emission is
stronger. These phenomena occur around power/ground
plane resonances as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 7. Structure of Through-Hole Signal via is

reflected in Proposed Modeling.

Figure 5. Open Edge Radiation Mechanism can be

predicted by a Voltage Difference between
power/ground plane from Signal Trace Coupling.

Proposed Model of through-hole Signal via

The proposed model (Figure 8) is completely based on a
PCB structure (Figure 6,7). The proposed model well
 Figure 8. Proposed Model of Through-Hole Signal Via.
Power/Ground Plane and Signal Trace are modeled with
3D TLM and L-C transmission line, respectively.
Proposed Model vs. Measurement Data in
Frequency Domain (S-Parameters)
Proposed Model will be verified with measured S-
parameters. Measurement was done with HP 8753ES
vector network analyzer. Figure 9 shows DUT, which are
made with 4-layer Fr-4 material PCB and have 5cm X 5cm
size, which generates resonances at 1.4GHz ((1,0) mode),
2GHz ((1,1) mode), and 2.8GHz ((2,0) mode) within 3GHz.
Figure 9. DUT for Measurement
Figure 10 and Figure 11 are |S11| and |S21| of Figure 9 (a),
respectively. Since microstrip line does not meet
power/ground plane impedance, S-parameters show the
only line characters.
Figure 10. |S11| of DUT (a)
Figure 11. |S21| of DUT (a)
Figure 12 and Figure 13 are (b). In this case, we see the
loading effect of power/ground plane impedance. Since
through-hole signal via is located at center, the (1,0) mode
just can be seen. But results are not matched with our
prediction, which is “reflection at input port is increase or
|S11| increases at resonance.” This reason is low line
impedance, which is supported by high impedance of
power/ground plane at resonance. The signal loss (|S21|) is
unchanged, because increased input power goes to
power/ground plane. Figure 14 and Figure 15 show the
results of (c), which has same trends of (b) except for the
number of resonance modes. This difference comes from
position of through-hole signal via, because all points on
power/ground plane have their several impedances. Above
all results make the proposed model be good agreement
with measurement up to 3GHz.
Figure 12. |S11| of DUT (b)
Figure 13. |S21| of DUT (b)
 Figure 14. |S11| of DUT (c)
Figure 15. |S21| of DUT (c)
Edge Radiation Measurement and Calculation
The loading effect of power/ground plane is determined by
impedance of power/ground plane around through-hole
signal via position. Since the return current intends to flow
along the closest way to signal line, via clearance is the
only path and impedance around via is important. The
impedance on power/ground plane changes with positions
but resonance frequencies does not. Therefore the
impedance of power/ground plane center has high
impedance at (1,0), (1,1) modes and that of offset from
center is like as Figure 3. Now you can know that through-
hole signal via at center has less loading effect and less
PCB edge radiation. This result is shown in Figure 16
(measured H-field with near field loop antenna) and Figure
17 (calculated H-field with formulas (1), (2), (3), (4), and
(5)). Measurement is done with network analyzer and
home-made loop antenna. Measurement is well matched
with prediction and calculation with data of proposed
model. Figure 17 is plotted by adding 50dB to calculated
data for the convenience comparison.
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Figure 16. Measured H-field
Figure 17. Calculated H-field
Conclusion
As a clock speed on PCB board reaches several hundreds
MHz, its harmonics are up to over GHz. Since PCB size is
competitive to harmonics of clock frequency, PCB edge
radiation by power/ground loading effect is significant. Our
approach, that is a loading effect of power/ground plane
resonance, is different from the previous, which said that
through-hole signal via is the small current source between
two planes. The loading effect well explains the PCB edge
radiation increases about 25dB at power/ground plane
resonance. And the position of through-hole signal via can
remove PCB edge radiation by selecting the low impedance
position on power/ground plane.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was supported by Tera-level Nanodevices
project of MOST.
REFERENCES
[1] Jin-Ho Kim, et al., ‘Analysis of via in multilayer
printed circuit boards for high-speed digital system’,
2001. International Symposium on Electronic
Materials and Packaging, 2001.
[2] Qizheng Gu, et al., ‘Modeling and analysis of vias in
multilayered integrated circuit’, IEEE Trans. On
Microwave Theory and Techniques, Vol. 40, No. 2,
Feb. 1993, 1993
[3] Ryosuke Ito, et al., ‘GRF modeling of vertical
interconnection between power-ground plane
combined with 2D TLM’, Electronic Performance of
Electronic Packaging,2001, 2001.
[4] Constantine A. Balanis, “ Antenna theory”, chapter 3,
12, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 1997