Signal Integrity SeriesJoin PCB Design Skool
Five resources that connect transmission line physics, controlled impedance, termination, crosstalk, and differential routing — so reflections and ringing stop being surprises you debug at bring-up and become decisions you made at layout.
Part of PCB Design Skool. Included with the Standard membership — $29/month →
No downloads, no app. Everything runs in your browser inside PCB Design Skool.
Join PCB Design Skool — secure checkout, about 30 seconds.
The full series is waiting in the community classroom — no email hunting, no password.
All 5 resources unlock in your browser the moment you join.
Each one standalone useful. Together they cover every stage from understanding to applying — all inside PCB Design Skool.
Eight illustrated sections — the complete SI framework from why a trace stops being a wire, through impedance control, reflections, termination, and crosstalk, to differential pairs and eye diagrams. The foundation everything else builds on.
Ten chapters with diagrams and a quiz after each. From electromagnetic fields and the return path through routing rules, eye diagrams, and stackup for SI. Progress is saved between sessions.
A4 landscape, print-ready. Impedance formulas, critical length, termination values, crosstalk rules, and the eight SI design rules — everything on one page next to your layout tool.
Five questions about your signal — rise time, topology, stackup, interface, primary concern. You get signal bandwidth, critical length, target impedance, and a specific termination recommendation. For your board, not a textbook example.
The key SI terms and the eight design rules as flip cards. Track what you know and what needs review before a design review or a routing session.
All 5 resources are included with the PCB Design Skool Standard membership. When the series gets new tools or chapters, you get them automatically. Your membership also includes the other minicourses, the EMI Control masterclasses, and the community.
Go in order to build the full mental model, or jump to the chapter where your gap is. Progress is saved between sessions.
What actually travels down the trace — and why it changes everything.
Where the return current flows and what breaks when it can't.
Z₀ from geometry and stackup — your numbers, not the fab's defaults.
Source, load, and topology — what causes reflections and how to kill them.
Inductive vs capacitive coupling and the rules that control both.
Simultaneous switching noise and the referencing discipline that prevents it.
The routing decisions that matter at speed — and the ones that don't.
The framework condensed into rules you apply immediately.
Reading jitter, noise, and margins — and tracing them back to the layout.
How the board architecture sets your SI ceiling before routing starts.
Lead Hardware Engineer at ETH Zurich on a medical device taken through full IVD certification. EMC and high-speed design consulting for Fortune 500 companies. Expert Author for Altium. The methodology in this series is the same one applied on boards that had to pass — not theory assembled for a course.
From Dario's work with engineers applying the same first-principles approach taught in this series.
“I would like to express my special thanks to Dario Fresu for his valuable guidance and support in making the system compliant with EMI/EMC standards. This achievement marks an important milestone in my professional journey of understanding, analyzing, and solving complex EMI/EMC challenges in high-power inverter systems.”
Every high-speed trace you route after this will be a decision, not a hope.
Part of PCB Design Skool. Included with the Standard membership — $29/month →
Complete the set: PDN Design Series · PCB Stackup Series
Both, but for different reasons. Earlier in your career, this builds the transmission-line foundation most engineers only get after their first ringing clock line. If you've been routing boards for years, it connects the rules you already follow to the physics behind them — so you know when they apply and when they don't.
No. The SI Series is fully self-contained — it builds from transmission line theory up. If you have the other series, you'll see how the three subjects connect; if not, this one stands alone.
It's set by rise time, not clock frequency — and the series teaches you to calculate exactly that. Modern ICs have fast edges even at modest clock rates, which is why boards that “aren't high-speed” still ring.
A video covers one concept in isolation. An app note covers one interface under the manufacturer's conditions. Neither connects the whole picture: why the return path is half the signal, how your stackup sets Z₀, when a trace becomes a transmission line, and which termination fits your topology. The Minicourse is a complete sequence, and the Wizard runs on your numbers.
Nothing. Everything runs in your browser — the tools, the minicourse, the printable cheatsheet. No app to download, no simulation platform required.
Join PCB Design Skool on the Standard membership and the full series unlocks inside the community — every resource in your browser, available immediately.