High Performance

(Copper) Cable
Technology

Jay Diepenbrock
October, 2013

September, 2013 IEEE 1

 Outline

• What and where are “High Performance” cables?

• Cable types
• Differential links
• Cable assembly construction
• Cables and EMI
• Cable EMI mitigation
• Measuring EMC properties of Cables
• References

September, 2013 2
 High Performance Cables
• Where? Everywhere
• What?
• “Big Data” servers, networks
• Ethernet, InfiniBand, SAS, PCI-Express
• PCs
• SAS, USB 3.0
• Multimedia devices
• USB 3.0, Thunderbolt
• TVs, entertainment
• Coax (!), HDMI

September, 2013 3
 High Performance Cables
350
I/O Interface Data Rates PCI-Express Gen. 1
PCI-Express Gen. 2
PCI-Express Gen. 3
300 300 SAS 2.1
SAS 3
S-ATA 1.0
S-ATA 2.0
250
S-ATA 3.0
Aggregate throughput, Gb/s

InfiniBand SDR
InfiniBand DDR
200 InfiniBand QDR
InfiniBand FDR
InfiniBand EDR
168
Thunderbolt
150 USB 1.1
USB 2
128
120 USB 3.0
HDMI 1.0
100 100
HDMI 1.3
80 HDMI 1.4
HDMI 2.0
60
50 Ethernet (100 Mb)
40 40 Ethernet (Gb)
30 Ethernet (802.3ba)
24
18
4.95 6 65 10.2 12
10 10 12 Ethernet (SFF-8431)
0 0.4 0.012 0.48 0 4 Ethernet (802.3bj)
1990 1995 2000 Year 2005 2010 2015

September, 2013 4
 Cable types
Passive or Active
Copper or Fiber

Bulk wire construction

• Shielded or not
• Single or multiconductor + Ground
• Round or ribbonized
• Flex
• Laminated coax
• Hybrid – misc. mixes (signals + power, etc.)

Connectors
• Coax (F, SMA, N)
• Direct attach multi-pin
• Paddle card (soldered) multi-pin
• Backplane style
• “Pluggable” transceiver

September, 2013 5
 Cable Types
connector Cu bulk wire connector

Passive

connector Cu bulk wire connector

Half active
(Tx or Rx end)

connector Cu bulk wire connector

Full active

connector Optical fiber connector

Active Optical

= electrical amp or eq. = O/E or E/O converter

September, 2013 6
 Single-conductor Cable (coax)
Construction
• Many sizes, materials D
• Majority are 50 or 75 Ohms dielectric
• Single signal conductor
• Dielectric – PE, PTFE, etc. 60 𝐷
𝑍0 =
• Shield (braid or foil+braid) 𝑒𝑟 𝑑
• Jacket
Center shield
Cond.
Applications d
• TV, radio broadcasting
• Cable TV
• Commercial, amateur radio
• Military
• Cell phones
• Anything RF (audio?)

September, 2013 7
 Differential Pair Cables
Majority of high speed interfaces now differential
• On chip, between functional islands
• Memory
• On-card
• I/O
Why Differential signaling?
• Higher system noise margin
• Power supply voltages decreasing -> lower voltage swing
• Lower noise immunity (crosstalk)
• Reduced EMI

September, 2013 8
 Differential Pair Bulk wire
Construction
• Two signal lines, many geometries
• Typically 100 Ohms impedance
• Twisted or parallel pair
• Dielectric – air, PE, PTFE, etc.
• Shielded (braid or foil+braid) or not
• Jacketed or not
Applications
• Networking (“Category”) – UTP, STP
• HPC, Supercomputing , I/O (Fibre Channel, PCI-e, SAS, S-ATA,
InfiniBand, Ethernet, etc.)
• Computer storage – SAS, S-ATA, USB
• Consumer – HDMI, USB, Thunderbolt

September, 2013 9
 Twisted Pair bulk wire
• Inexpensive
• Various performance grades
• (“Category” 5, 5e, 6, 6a, 7 cables)
• Some shielded
• Can be field terminated
• Susceptible to crosstalk
Application Lane # lanes Cable
speed (pairs) Type
Ethernet 1-1000 4 Cat. 3, 5,
Mb/s 5e UTP*

Ethernet 10 Gb/s 4 Cat. 6a

STP
PCI-e 2.5-16 2-32 SPP
Gb/s
FC, Enet, *2-25 Gb/s 2-24 SPP
IB,

September, 2013 10
 Shielded Parallel Pair (“Twinax”) bulk wire
• Higher performance than TP
• Individually Shielded Pairs
• Various dielectrics -
dielectric
PE, PTFE, etc.
• Foil and/or bulk braid shield s
• Outer jacket per application
• Flammability
• Abrasion, chemical resistance
• Applications - I/O, networking D
(FC, PCI-e, SAS, S-ATA, InfiniBand,
Ethernet, etc.)
Bulk shield

d Drain wire

September, 2013 11
 Shielded Parallel Pair (“Twinax”)
Advantages
• Good performance
• Low crosstalk good

Pitfalls
• Symmetry important
• Non-uniform materials
• Geometric structure
• Common Mode generation
• Skew bad
• System asymmetries
• Manufacturing

September, 2013 12
 Shielded Parallel Pair shield topology
EXD versus Standard Spiral Shield 24 AWG 100 Ohm
0

EXD
-10 Spiral 10 meter data, fixture not removed

Longitudinal
-20 shield
-30
SDD21 dB / 10 meter

-40

thru fixture
-50
EXD 1

EXD 2
-60
EXD 3

-70 EXD 4

Optimized for High Frequency 1

-80 Optimized for High Frequency 2 Spiral shield

Optimized for High Frequency 3
-90 Optimized for High Frequency 4

-100
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000 14000 16000 18000 20000
Frequency MHz

September, 2013 13
 Quad
Construction
• Four signal lines (two pairs), but smaller 1+

• Dielectric – PE, PTFE

• Unshielded quad 2+ 2-

• Bulk shield
• Jacket 1-

Applications
• HPC, Supercomputing shield
• Limited usage
• Expensive, hard to make – orthogo-
nality critical to CM, xtalk perf.
• Hard to terminate

September, 2013 14
 Connectors

SFF-8487 internal mini SAS SFF-8088 external mini SAS SFF-8470 SAS
HDMI

7-pin Serial ATA right-angle 7-pin Serial ATA straight SFF-8482 SAS 29 pin w /power

September, 2013 15
 Connectors

PCI-Express
x16
(QSFP)

SFF-8038 (SFP+)

September, 2013 16
 Tear-down – QSFP (SFF-8088)
Screw
Cover Shell

Latch
Spring

Base Raw Cable

Spacer
Insert Molding
PCBA

Cover

September, 2013 17
 Wire termination

QSFP
SFF-8088 (12X InfiniBand)

September, 2013 18
 Differential Links
Each signal transmitted by a pair of conductors, driven
Signal conductors Dielectric

180 degrees out of phase

+ -

+ -
card wire
cable
Drain wire Foil shield

Considerations:
–greater common mode noise immunity than single-ended
–less EMI radiation than single-ended
–must consider and measure differential quantities
analysis, simulation methods
test equipment, fixtures
–additional propagation modes are possible

September, 2013 19
 Differential Impedance

• “Modes" are now possible

• Case 1
L, C, Z
common mode
L, C, Z

C11 C12 L11 L12 L/C

C21 C22 L21 L22

September, 2013 20
 Differential Impedance

• “Modes" are now possible

• Case 1
L, C, Z
common mode
L, C, Z

• Case 2 L, C, Z
differential mode
L, C, Z

the modes have different impedances,

and different propagation delays!

C11 C12 L11 L12

It's still L/C , but now C= and L=
C21 C22 L21 L22

September, 2013 21
 Differential Measurements
• Options
–Make multiple single-ended measurements and do the math yourself

Z11 Z12 Z22

see Carey, Scott, and Weeks: "Characterization of Multiple Parallel Transmission Lines,"
IEEE Trans. Instr. and Meas., Sept. 1969

–Buy differential test equipment, build differential fixtures

Differential TDR - measure M1=C1-C2
Four port VNA or two port with external test set - measure sdd21, not s21,
and sdd11, not s11
Provides additional information over use of baluns (no common mode data)

September, 2013 22
 Differential Pair Skew

• Two types:
–in-pair (between legs of pair)
Due to difference in propagation delay between legs of pair
Manifested as "excess attenuation"
Spec. limits pretty tight - causes differential imbalance, and can
cause EMI problems due to common mode energy
not uniform with length!
–pair to pair (between pairs)
difference in propagation delay between pairs
modern interfaces relatively insensitive to it (500 ps limit) - it's
corrected in the design

September, 2013 23
 Skew

September, 2013 24
 Skew
• Small amounts of skew create significant common mode
noise
• As little as 1% of bit width for skew can have significant
EMI effects
• As little as 10% of bit width skew creates CM signal of
equivalent amplitude to initial signals

September, 2013 25
 Skew
Individual Channels of Differential Signal with Skew
2 Gb/s with 50 ps Rise and Fall Time (+/- 1.0 volts)
0.6

0.4

0.2
Voltage

Channel 1
No Skew
-0.2
10 ps
20 ps
50 ps
-0.4 100 ps
150 ps
200 ps

-0.6
5.0E-10 1.0E-09 1.5E-09 2.0E-09 2.5E-09 3.0E-09
Time (seconds)

September, 2013 26
 Skew
Common Mode Voltage on Differential Pair Due to In-Pair Skew
2 Gb/s with 50 ps Rise and Fall Time (+/- 1.0 volts)
0.6

0.4

0.2
Amplitude (volts)

0.0

10 ps
20 ps
-0.2 50 ps
100 ps
150 ps
200 ps
-0.4

-0.6
5.0E-10 1.0E-09 1.5E-09 2.0E-09 2.5E-09 3.0E-09 3.5E-09 4.0E-09 4.5E-09 5.0E-09
Time (seconds)

September, 2013 27
 Rise/fall time mismatch

• Small amounts of mismatch create significant

CM noise
• Not as significant as skew, but harder to control!
• Telltale is significant 2nd harmonic content

September, 2013 28
 Rise/fall time mismatch
Example of Effect for Differential Signal with Rise/Fall Time Mismatch
2 Gb/s Square Wave (Rise/Fall = 50 & 100 ps)
0.6

Channel 1
0.4
Channel 2
T/R=50/100ps

0.2
Voltage

-0.2

-0.4

-0.6
0.0E+00 2.0E-10 4.0E-10 6.0E-10 8.0E-10 1.0E-09 1.2E-09 1.4E-09 1.6E-09 1.8E-09 2.0E-09
Time (Seconds)

September, 2013 29
 Rise/fall time mismatch
Common Mode Voltage on Differential Pair Due to Rise/Fall Time Mismatch
2 Gb/s with Differential Signal +/- 1.0 Volts
0.2
T/R=50/100ps
T/R=50/150ps
0.15 T/R=50/200ps

0.1

0.05
Level (volts)

-0.05

-0.1

-0.15

-0.2
0 5E-10 1E-09 1.5E-09 2E-09 2.5E-09 3E-09 3.5E-09 4E-09 4.5E-09 5E-09
Time (seconds)

September, 2013 30
 Eye opening and Jitter
Measures time domain performance of link
Measured using PRBS or application-specific data pattern (e. g., CJTPAT)
Eye opening -
–vertical "black space" in middle of many overlaid bits
–minimum opening needed for receiver to distinguish between "1" and "0"
Jitter - horizontal width of zero crossing of overlaid waveforms

eye opening

jitter
September, 2013 31
 Eye Opening and Jitter – test setup
Pattern or BERT Gen. Sampling or real-time oscilloscope

Clock

PRBS7, 9, ..31 pattern Color-graded display

Vout ~= 1 Vpp Infinite persistence
Trise ~= 30 ps x Histogram hits
xx Gb/s

Asynch. Test Test

(terminate unused ports
Crosstalk card card with 50 Ohms to Ground)
Source Cable

September, 2013 32
 Sources of EMI in Cables

• Skew in system coupled to cable shield, due to

• Asymmetric differential pairs
• Unequal rise/fall time of signals
• Common mode in signals
• Cable construction
• Common mode conversion in bulk wire
• Poor connection from Chassis to Cable plug backshell
• Leaky backshell
• Skew in plug/paddle card/bulk wire
• Poorly shielded bulk wire

September, 2013 33
 Common mode conversion

September, 2013 34
 Cable Assembly Construction Influence on EMC

• Shielding
• Pair shields – foil in or out? Shielded or not? Drain wire handling
• Bulk shield
• Foil (high freq.)
• Braid (low freq.) – shield coverage (typ. 80-90%), weave angle, etc.
• Backshell design
• Seams, leakage potential
• Latches, jack screws
• Grounding

• Backshell-chassis connection – springs, gaskets, drain wires

• Don’t forget the system influence!

• In-pair skew
• Mismatched rise/fall tmes
• Common mode
September, 2013 35
 Cable EMI sources
HDMI cable shield connection

From Bergey and Altland, “EMI Shielding of Cable Assemblies”, DesignCon 2008

September, 2013 36
 Cable EMI sources
USB cable shield connection (or not!)

From Bergey and Altland, “EMI Shielding of Cable Assemblies”, DesignCon 2008

September, 2013 37
 Cable EMI sources

From Bergey and Altland, “EMI Shielding of Cable Assemblies”, DesignCon 2008

September, 2013 38
 Measuring Cable EMI
• Key parameters
• Transfer Impedance
• Shielding Effectiveness
• Measurement methods
• EM 52022 (CISPR 22) – semi-anechoic chamber
• Tube fixture (IEC 62153-4-7)
• Measures transfer impedance
• Max. frequency ~1 GHz
• Reverb chamber (no standard yet)
• Measures shielding effectiveness
• Usable ~300 MHz – 20 GHz

September, 2013 39
 Tube Fixture

September, 2013 40
 Tube Fixture Sample Results

September, 2013 41
 Reverb Chamber

• Closed, conductive-walled room

• Usable frequency range ~300 MHz-20 GHz, depending on
room size and antennae used
• Don’t dampen resonance, celebrate it!
• CUT is driven with differential or common mode signal,
radiated energy is measured
• No system hardware required
• “Tuner” used to stir resonances, either stepped or
continuously from external controller
• Much work on reverb chambers at OK State Univ.
(C. Bunting, et. al.)

September, 2013 42
 Reverb Chamber

September, 2013 43
 Reverb Chamber

Measurement
Antennas
Tuner

CUT Stepper motor

CUT support
(non-conductive)

September, 2013 44
September, 2013 45
 EMI Mitigation in Cables

• Many paths to EMC cleanliness

• Reduce system in-pair skew
• Match signal rise/fall times
• Reduce common mode energy coupling to cable shield
• Improve cable shield connection to cable backshell
• Reduce connection inductance
• Better shield coverage
• Utilize absorbing material in cable jacket
• Utilize Band Gap devices on host card

September, 2013 46
 EMI Absorbing Material
• Available from ARC Technologies, Inc. for
• extrusion in cable jacket
• Molded enclosures (replace metal can)
• Covers over connectors
• Frequency selective – suppression range depends on formula used
• Doesn’t need to be used on whole cable – just ends are enough

September, 2013 47
 EMI Absorbing Material
Motivation - Eliminate Ferrite Cores on Cables

September, 2013 48
 EMI Absorbing Material
Ethernet Cable Emission Reduction (When Drive Signal at Same End of Cable)
ARC Lossy Material Covers Partial Length
20

18

16
Ethernet Sample #1 w/ 11" Covered
Ethernet Sample #1 w/ 23" Covered
Reduction in Emissions (dB)

14
Ethernet Sample #1 w/ 37" Covered
Ethernet Sample #1 Full Cable Covered
12

10

0
0.0E+00 1.0E+09 2.0E+09 3.0E+09 4.0E+09 5.0E+09 6.0E+09 7.0E+09 8.0E+09 9.0E+09 1.0E+10
Frequency (Hz)

September, 2013 49
 References
• Diepenbrock, J.: Measurement and Analysis of Shielding Effectiveness and
Transfer Impedance of High Speed Data Cables, DesignCon 2012
• Archambeault, B., Connor, S., Diepenbrock, J., and Knight, A.: Developing
Limits for Common Mode Noise on High Speed Differential Signals,
DesignCon 2011
• Hill. D.: “Electromagnetic Theory of Reverberation Chambers,” Natl. Inst.
of Standards and Technology Tech Note 1506, 1998
• Vignesh Rajamani, Charles F. Bunting and James C. West, “Calibration of a
Numerically Modeled Reverberation Chamber,” IEEE Symposium on
Electromagnetic Compatibility 2009
• Archambeault, B., Chikando, E., Connor, S., and Diepenbrock, J.: “High Speed
Cables with Lossy Material Coating,” IEEE 2010 Symposium on
Electromagnetic Compatibility 2010

September, 2013 50
 Other References
Standards
• Code of Federal Regulations Title 47, Telecommunications, part 15 (US)
• EN 55022, Information Technology Equipment – Radio Disturbance Characteristics – Limits and
Methods of Measurement (Europe)
• ANSI/EIA/ECA 364-66A EMI Shielding Effectiveness of Electrical Connectors
• IEC 61000-4-21 Reverb chamber test methods
• IEC 61276 Screening attenuation measurement by the reverberation chamber method
• IEC 62153-4-7 Transfer impedance and screening, tube in tube method
• IEC 62153-4-9 Coupling attenuation of screened balanced cables, triaxial method
• IEEE 802
• InfiniBand Specification, volume 2
• PCI-Express Cabling Specification
Other
• Agilent Technologies: Understanding the Fundamental Principles of Vector Network
Analysis," AN 1287-1, available at http://www.agilent.com
• Bogatin, E: "Differential Impedance Finally Made Simple,“ available at
http://www.ewh.ieee.org/r5/denver/rockymountainemc/archive/2000/diffimp.pdf
• Carey, Scott, and Weeks: "Characterization of Multiple Parallel Transmission Lines,"
IEEE Trans. Instr. and Meas., Sept. 1969
• Deutsch, A., "Electrical Characteristics of Interconnections for High-Performance
Systems," IEEE Proceedings vol. 86 No. 2, Feb. 1998

September, 2013 51
 Conferences
• DesignCon – February, in Santa Clara, CA
• IEEE Electrical Performance of Electronic Packaging (EPEP)
• IEEE EMC Symposium (EMCS)
• in Raleigh, NC in August, 2014
• Embedded SI conference
• http://www.emcs.org
• IEEE ECTC, ED, ISSCC
• IEEE SPI workshop (Europe)

10/30/2013 IEEE 52