Trace board design recommendations

When designing trace boards additional design considerations need to be taken into account to make sure that a clean and noise free signal can propagate from the target device to the trace probe.

The most common recommendations are as follows:

• We recommend to design the following pin interface: Trace Pinout
• Use all 4 trace data signals to avoid overflows.
• All trace transmission lines should be as short as possible and have ideally the same length
• Shielded transmission lines can reduce the impact of crosstalk
• Impedance matching of the transmission lines can improve the signal quality drastically
• Serial termination resistors should be considered for long transmission lines
• Do not use any capacitive or inductive elements which are connected to the trace lines e.g. diodes, LEDs, capacitors, inductors etc.
• Avoid stubs which create parasitic impedance changes and reflection
• Avoid multi usage of trace pins with other ICs which again will cause unwanted impedance changes and reflection
• If your trace lanes are not shielded, make sure they do not propagate close to elements which can generate electro-magnetic waves e.g. motors or antennas

For design reference our Trace Reference Boards can be used.