Crosstalk Effects of Differential Thin-Film Microstrip Lines in Multilayer Motherboards

With increasing demand for miniaturization the requirements for packaging and system integration are more challenging especially when more and more components are to be integrated into a compact module. In such a situation, crosstalk effects and signal degradation due to dense layouts may become critical. The focus of this paper is on the influence of neighboring elements, discontinuities and ground layer modifications in coupled thin-film microstrip lines in differential operation. Moreover, design guidelines how to mitigate these effects are provided.