BoardSurfers: Training Insights: Creating High-Speed Via Structures

“Every once in a while, a new technology, an old problem, and a big idea turn into an innovation”, said Dean Kamen, and indeed making electrical connections in a multi-layered PCB was no less than an innovative idea. To make things easy for us, Tyler in his post IC Packagers: Plan Your Escape with Modernized Structures has discussed via structures in detail. If you want to know more about via structures, then I will recommend you take a look at this blog first. And if you are all set, let’s get started.

High-speed via structures combine vias, connect lines (clines) or traces, static shapes without voids, and route keep-outs. High-speed via structures comprise of differential pairs with return path vias and route keep-outs for custom voiding. Standard via structures are defined only for single net items, but high-speed via structures can be defined for multiple net items. The major difference between standard via structures and high-speed via structures is that with standard via structures you can only create a via structure that’s going from a pin to a via and this is it, but with high-speed via structures you can use more items.

You must have High-Speed or an equivalent license enabled in the Product Choices dialog in order to generate and work with high-speed via structures.

When a high-speed via-structure is created, a .exml file is generated, which is an encrypted XML file and is saved in your current working directory. You can reuse these structure files from your current design or a library of similar files. The reason behind getting the .exml file is that the Auto Export eXML option was selected in the Create Structure dialog box. You can also see the description of this selected option in the Description section as shown in the next image. 

To learn in detail about creating high-speed via structures, watch the Creating High-Speed Via Structures from within the Allegro PCB Editor video on the Cadence Support portal. Click the video link now or visit Cadence Support and search for this video under Video Library.

I hope that this video helps you in creating high-speed via structures more easily and effectively within Allegro layout editors. So, start using these in your designs to easily make electrical connections in multi-layered PCBs.

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Thanks for reading and see you next time for more on Training Insights. Stay tuned till then.