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Tracks to nowhere?

J

John Williamson

Jan 1, 1970
0
Chris said:
I'd guess it's an antenna.

+1. It's about the right size for a printed cellphone system (3G)
antenna. Reinforced by the SIM1 and SIM2 letering by it.
 
T

The Natural Philosopher

Jan 1, 1970
0
Posted in another group:

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/22/signalstonowhere.jpg/

what are these tracks for?
they are tuned circuits. open ended transmission lines. Or a bored
draughtsman doodling..


--
Ineptocracy

(in-ep-toc’-ra-cy) – a system of government where the least capable to
lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the
members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are
rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a
diminishing number of producers.
 
T

The Natural Philosopher

Jan 1, 1970
0
+1. It's about the right size for a printed cellphone system (3G)
antenna. Reinforced by the SIM1 and SIM2 letering by it.
ah. could be that as well as a tuned circuit.


--
Ineptocracy

(in-ep-toc’-ra-cy) – a system of government where the least capable to
lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the
members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are
rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a
diminishing number of producers.
 
B

Brian Gaff

Jan 1, 1970
0
Maybe they used to make very big wedding cakes there and when they wanted to
move them...
There is a song about it
Tracks of my Tiers.

OK I'll go to sleep again now.

Brian
 
Highly unlikely in this case. Transmission line test structures
are through lines, not open ended stubs. I think it's an antenna
of some sort. Doug White

I'm the person who posted the picture, and I should have mentioned
that it's a PC motherboard, MSI brand, model Z68A-G43(G3). It has
no wireless built into it.

I once found an antenna inside a Panasonic-made CRT monitor,
around the flyback. It was 1-2 pieces of circuit board material,
each about 3" long and 1/2" wide. In the schematic, it was
connected to a flyback winding that went nowhere else. Apparently
the antenna put out a signal to counteract interference generated
by the flyback.
transformer.
 
M

Mike Tomlinson

Jan 1, 1970
0
Andy said:
I've seen delay lines on tracks - funny zigzag patterns - but these were
in logic analysers, and were designed to keep the tracks from all the
probes the same length.

Yes, I've seen similar things on PC motherboards, where it's important
to keep the tracks between the CPU/memory controller and the memory
slots the same length.

That isn't what the OP photo shows, though. I certainly agree with
those that think it's an antenna of some kind. Figuring out what "SIM1
and "SIM2" mean might be a clue.
 
T

tony sayer

Jan 1, 1970
0
Mike Tomlinson said:
Yes, I've seen similar things on PC motherboards, where it's important
to keep the tracks between the CPU/memory controller and the memory
slots the same length.

That isn't what the OP photo shows, though. I certainly agree with
those that think it's an antenna of some kind. Figuring out what "SIM1
and "SIM2" mean might be a clue.

Well is the just simply a PC motherboard?.

If so then very unlikely thats a anything to do with SIM cards, it
prolly means something completely different;!.

It might be that the designer thought it looked nice, and it broke up a
bit of the board that had no copper tracks on;)...
 
D

dennis@home

Jan 1, 1970
0
If so then very unlikely thats a anything to do with SIM cards, it
prolly means something completely different;!.

It might be that the designer thought it looked nice, and it broke up a
bit of the board that had no copper tracks on;)...

We did some boards where the vias were no bigger than the tracks so a
track that apparently ended actually went through.
It doesn't look like that here though as the other vias are quite big.
 
R

Robert Macy

Jan 1, 1970
0
Posted in another group:

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/22/signalstonowhere.jpg/

what are these tracks for?

After downloading your image, copying, and overlaying it seems that
the two patterns do NOT lie on top each other, rather form small
loops. *IF* there is a gnd plane between, doesn't matter if they
overlay or not. They do appear to be the same length of run and do
appear to have a 'guard trace' along each side. But either the vias
are super tiny which doesn't appear to be the case since vias can be
seen in adjacent areas, or those guard traces are floating.

The two sets of pads, SIM1 and SIM2, look like either simply
mechanical access points. If you took an instrument like a network
analyzer with small pointy tips, it looks possible to touch SIM1 &
SIM2 from either side; which would allow you to measure the
transmission line characteristics of both the outside layer processes
and check/control the PCB manufacturing. That's my vote. Although
we've always laid the test traces nearer to the outside, unused areas
of the PCB and therefore the traces were straight.

Just as a note, the vias in that adjacent area look VERY close
together which would cause the power/GND planes to have large holes
cut into them rather than a series of small holes. -- Usually
considered not good for signal integrity AND especially EMC issues.

Did anybody find out what that chip, ASMEDIA ASM1083 does?
 
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