Impedance Matching in PCB Design

March 25, 2022

Impedance
Matching in PCB Design

It is fair to consider a PCB itself as a component in which multiple traces are connected. Each
trace is di erent, some are high speed, some are low speed, some are noisy, some are used by
the return path of circuit current, etc. Now, as we all know, there are lots of variations in ideal
circuits and real circuits. Suppose a high-frequency trace is routed with a 7mm copper trace
with a 0.5mm track width, it will add Inductance, Capacitance, and resistance on the track.
This makes a di cult situation for high-frequency signal lines as that capacitance and
inductance could change the frequency of the signal and the ending point of the trace will
produce completely di erent results than the starting point of the trace. The major
degradation of this type of signal is due to the Impedance in PCB trace.

What is Impedance?

You can think of Impedance as resistance in AC. Impedance is also measured in Ohms, just
like Resistance, but it is very di erent from resistance. Resistance Ohms works in DC
characteristics, but the impedance is used in AC, speci cally, that has a frequency.
To ensure that the signal trace is carefully designed and the quality of the signal does not
degrade over the traces, impedance needs to be controlled carefully as the impedance of the
traces of a PCB is generally uncontrolled.

Importance of Impedance Matching in PCB Design

Essentially, impedance control in PCB design refers to the matching of substrate material
properties with trace dimensions and locations to ensure the impedance of a trace’s signal is
within a certain percentage of a speci c value. Controlled impedance boards provide
repeatable high-frequency performance.

Following are the reasons to control impedance in PCB design.

At high-frequency, the signal traced on a PCB is not just a connection but acts like
a component. Even a single trace has di erent characteristics at di erent points.

Whenever the signal moves further in the traces, di erent impedance produces
signal re ection that is dependent on the di erence between two unmatched
impedances. The larger impedance mismatch produces larger re ection and a ects
the signal integrity.

The re ection of the signal superimposes the actual or primary signal that is often
misunderstood by the high-frequency ADC, high-speed processing circuits, and fails to decode
the actual signal.

Standard Impedance Values for PCB Design

Di erent signal traces require di erent impedance characteristics over the entire signal
traces. Depending on the types of signal and the speed of the data transfer or frequency, the
list below will give a widely accepted controlled impedance for di erent PCB signal traces.

It is important to remember that the Impedance needs to be maintained all over the signal
path.
 Signal Standard Targeted Impedance Accepted Tolerances
(Ohms)

USB 90 +/- 15%

HDMI 95 +/- 15%

IEEE 1394 108 +/- 2%

Displayport 100 +/- 20%

VGA 75 +/- 5%

DVI 95 +/- 15%

PCIe 85 +/- 15%

Ethernet Cat.5 100 +/- 5%

Thus, when routing signal traces, it is important to maintain the above impedances to
maintain signal integrity.

However, other than this, speci c impedance requirements are always mentioned in the
datasheet of the respective component. It is advisable to go through the datasheet to get
information about high-frequency traces and what are the impedance requirements of the
particular signal.

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