Signal Integrity: Faster and Simpler Debugging with Integrated Digital and Analog Measurement

What is Signal Integrity? Signal Integrity engineering is an activity performed during the design phase of a digital system to assure that it fully meets specifications. Signal Integrity encompasses design issues such as maximizing timing and noise margins and understanding analog characteristics such as waveforms, crosstalk, and Electro-Magnetic Interference. These second and third order effects become first order as system performance rises. Controlling them can mean the difference between project success and failure. This paper offers four steps to debugging signal integrity problems in highspeed digital systems.