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.

Should you be worried about damage to your trace probe from the target device due to high voltage spikes we recommend to use the J-Trace Isolator instead of ESD diodes.