Mitigating differential skew by rotating meshed ground for high-density layout in flexible printed circuits

Abstract

Asymmetry of differential transmission lines over a meshed ground plane causes differential skew, which leads to signal integrity issues. We measured to evaluate how the angle between the differential transmission lines and meshed ground (the rotation angle) affected differential skew. We also investigated the effect of the lines’ position on characteristic impedance and the feasibility of high-density layout of the differential transmission lines, including the bend structure. We found that the differential skew and characteristic impedance are not significantly affected by the position of the differential transmission lines and meshed ground when the rotation angle is set to 30°, a relatively small value. Measurements showed that our design is effective.