Backplane Designer's Guide: Signal Conditioning

One of the most important decisions that a backplane designer makes when defining system performance is the selection of the driver integrated circuit (IC) or IC input/output (I/O) technology. To achieve a high level of signal integrity, the physical backplane must be designed with specific signal behavior in mind. The physical backplane includes, but is not limited to, the number of loads, the number of outputs switching, and the termination type. Signal behavior refers to characteristics such as frequency, static and dynamic drive, edge rate, and incident wave or reflected-wave switching.