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PCB Power Distribution Networks (PDN) Basics & Measurements - Phil's Lab #161

Phil’s Lab

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Basics of PCB power distribution networks, real-world impedance measurement (Bode 100), voltage noise measurements, as well as modelling and simulation using LTSpice.

[SUPPORT]
Hardware design courses: https://phils-lab-shop.fedevel.education
Course content: https://www.phils-lab.net/courses

Patreon: Patreon: phils94

[GIT]
https://github.com/pms67

[SOCIAL]
Instagram: Instagram: philslabyt

[LINKS]
MLCC Basics Video: Capacitor Hardware Design Basics (MLCC) - ...
Microstrip Resistance Calculator: https://www.emisoftware.com/calculato...
Microstrip Inductance Calculator: https://www.emisoftware.com/calculato...
Various Steve Sandler Videos:
PDN Basics For Power Designers (part 1): W...
DgCon 2019 - Steve Sandler - Power Related...
Bode 100 VNA: https://www.omicron-lab.com/products/... ‪@OMICRONLabTutorials‬

[TIMESTAMPS]
00:00 Intro

00:52 JLCPCB (Ad)

01:59 PDN Basics
10:30 Hardware Overview
13:10 2-Port Shunt-Through Technique
16:14 Measurement Set-Up

17:04 Unpowered PDN Impedance Measurement
18:19 Powered PDN Impedance Measurement
22:26 Effect of Removing Capacitors

25:00 Voltage Noise Test Set-Up
29:43 Voltage Noise Measurements
35:50 PDN Plot using Oscilloscope & Signal Generator

38:24 LTSpice Simulation

43:08 Outro

20 Comments

@PhilsLab Creator 1 year ago (edited) Pinned

To clarify: the current load won't be terribly sinusoidal, as the FETs introduce nonlinearities when driven like this, which I should've clarified. I stated it more as a crude simplification, that you would drive the output 'in an ideal case' with a sinusoidal current load. Additionally, for the Bode plot feature, the output wave type is fixed to sine anyway. An alternative option would be to use a different gate-driver, or do a far more 'small signal' load current modulation about some operating point, to maintain linearity.

Upcoming videos: USB 3.2 SuperSpeed hub design, full KiCad 9 tutorial with TI MSPM0 MCU, and more!

@lightmorrison5404 1 year ago

you are the goat of electronics engineering yt. the stuff you provide for free is insane much respect o7

@zyphyn7072 1 year ago

I got an internship as a hardware engineer and you have helped me understand some things faster than I thought. Thanks!

@ericksodmg 1 year ago

You are the reason I am employed and blessed with the opportunity to be able to do cool stuff like this. This video could have not come at a better time. Thanks, Phil The Goat!

@anorthernsoul153 1 year ago (edited)

Dude, thank you so much! I have been looking all over for something PDN related geared towards a beginner. Keep up the good work Phil!

@Thirsty_Fox 1 year ago

I really appreciate these practical explanation videos. I found engineering school focuses on the fundamentals and theory, but lacks a bit in terms of real-world applications you'll see in actual designs as a hardware engineer (which can be pretty difficult to work through for the first time).

@urielmanup 1 year ago

Thank you, Mr. Phil. I have learned a lot from you.

@branniganslaw2137 1 year ago

I love how your videos show a practical method of measuring all the theoretical aspects. I feel like far too many courses fail to show a means of understanding with real boards and equipment how to test and verify what you are taught in terms of theory. I've actually been taking a course through IPC for signal integrity and the way PDNs and transmission lines were described was such a mess of just theory with no practical explanations that I went looking for videos on YT and luckily found your channel. Incredible stuff, thank you so much for this FREE content. Subscribed

@jorgennorberg7113 1 year ago

I learn so much from watching your videos. Thank you!

@kiprof4350 1 year ago

Nice Video Phil Thank you!

@acanadianbear6966 1 year ago (edited)

Hi Phil! As always, thank you for the fantastic educational material. Btw, in LTSpice, on the waveform viewer you can right click the right axis and select "Don't Plot Phase Delay" to remove the phase plot, then you can right click on the left axis and select "Linear" to plot in Voltage (or in Ohms). If you then plot the Voltage/Current you then get your PDN curve with impedance (in ohms) vs frequency. Just a little setup trick I do. Cheers!

@mattanimation 1 year ago

this is super useful info, thanks again Phil!

@limrithy5495 1 year ago

Thanks sir for your tutorial

@jessegrahamee 1 year ago

I appreciate the Steve Sandler call out. His talks are always excellent and his book Power Integrity is an excellent reference text to have on the shelf if anyone is interested.

@danielcarpio4302 1 year ago

Your videos are always high quality, thank you so much for your kindness in sharing this much information specially to us that are not electronics engineering major or studying hardware engineering. Previously, I learned that STM32 MCUs has a total current limit for the whole port which ranges from 120mA-150mA. Can you please tackle about this specially when controlling a lot of peripherals. Thank you!

@severingetzner8211 1 year ago

Friday evening program 😎

@crownnever 1 year ago

me encanto la version en español. !

@iggypei 1 year ago

Hi Phil, I've been a viewer of yours for quite a while now and you've helped me improve as a designer, (something that I do as a hobby). I'm exploring RF these days, specifically regarding RF PCB design and antenna design for 2.4GHz radio. Your video on the "RF Schtick" was quite helpful, but I want to know more about the considerations that I should make when designing an RF PCB.

@Mb71396 1 year ago

This video is great. I wish I found it 10 months ago when I was discovering all of this. With the likes of Nvdia, AMD and others building super high current low voltage chips, pdn and power integrity will become cricitical areas to get right and make intelligent design decisions. Thank you and thanks to Steve, Eric, Lee, Heidi, Rick, Chris and countless others who have dymisified this science. Btw picotest offer some pretty cool pdn probes which you can hook on to the relevant size cap an take some impedance measurements with using the Bode - is this something you considered? this way you can measure the impedance profile of existing boards too.

@nikhileshkaranam4637 1 month ago (edited)

firstly thanks a lot for the wonderful and valuable information. now that we measure the PDN impedance of the board, what should the target look like? is there an ideal PDN impedance profile for my board so I can compare it with my current measurement and tweak the design to fit it around the ideal profile? how do I even know if my measurements are good or bad because I dont know what the ideal condition or safe condition should look like?