RF connectors, cable transmission lines and your PCB

摘要

As higher-performing electronic devices come into play, signal management bottlenecks come and go. This article will discuss how connectors and cable assemblies are the next capacity constraint to exacting levels of performance for higher frequency applications. Some years ago, as technology moved "digital," the engineering focus was on the IC's, with millions of instructions per second (MIPS) reaching new performance levels. These high processing speeds forced use of higher order harmonics to square the wave for a faster rise time. Math co-processors were integrated into the IC and parallel processing took hold. Other digital signal processing capabilities such as multi-chip-module packaging became commonplace, and today fundamental clock rates on the IC are at the 1 GHz level, an amazing engineering feat within the chip package itself.