Historically, SI, PI, and EMI have always been treated as three separate issues, despite how SI has attained near perfect power supply, while PI hasn’t properly factored the impact of switching signals. Many industry experts believe both signal and power integrity are functionally synonymous, and should be simultaneously simulated to avoid over-optimistic results. As device speeds increase, new issues among SI, PI, and EMI become more critical, leading many industry experts to believe we’ve reached a point where engineers can’t design high-speed digital systems without clearly understanding the relationship between the three disciplines.
Many industry experts are speculating on what the future has in store for the three disciplines. One pundit is Steve Sandler, managing director at Picotest, who moderated a panel of seasoned engineers in a keynote event at DesignCon earlier this month. During this session, panelists gave their predictions on what the next five years holds for EMI, PI, and SI. Throughout his career, Sandler hasn’t shied away from making bold industry predictions, and has been spot-on about quite a few noteworthy projections over the years.