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D.A.S.
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added2nd add We assumed your design was margin tested and the code was perfect in your questions. (not) I suggest you verify the following;

  1. Configure the IO to have fast slew and disable the input filters
  2. Enable the input mode on the clock
  3. Set the slew bit (9?) to increase the slew rate for the SDRAM interface pins
  4. Enable repeater mode since they are bi-directional and must not be left floating on a cmos input.
  5. Change the supply voltage to determine sensitivity to error.
  6. default reset mode for a data bus pin is FUNC=0X00, MODE=0X02, HYSTERESIS=ENABLED, INVERT=DISABLED, and SLEW=STANDARD
  7. Does your call to PINSEL_ConfigPin() with a new function value, reset the MODE to INACTIVE (no pull-down/pull-up resistor) and turn off HYSTERESIS?
  8. Are you using a for/next loops or discrete code such as;
  • LPC_IOCON->P3_0 |= 1; // D0 @ P3.0
  • LPC_IOCON->P3_1 |= 1; // D1 @ P3.1
  • LPC_IOCON->P3_2 |= 1; // D2 @ P3.2 etc.
  1. Do you assert to re-enable the WE pin, every time when needed?
  2. Do you use? *pPIN &= ~(0x00000007);//Clear function bits"

I remember debugging my 1st CMOS design from a Physics post grad student for a Seismic portable recording, switchable timer logic board. There was no firmware or uC but he never did a worst case tolerance analysis and the hardware had race conditions all over the place when a dozen more boards were built and debugged by myself. The Seismic Prof brought over the Head of Physics Dept to ask why I could not make debug the boards, then I had to advise him component variation exposed many design flaws called timing race conditions due to metastable conditions and clock edge used. He still still didn't understand, then I asked him tell me how many fingers I unfolded while I was raising my hand before it reached my waist level from low to high. Then he said , you can't do that and expect a correct answer. I said, precisely. Thats a primitive race condition. They get less obvious with more levels of complexity. U of Manitoba 1973.

1st added: Which bus termination scheme did you use? bus method (1) is preferred, Is 1.25Vdc clean?


  1. Did pay for ICT on these boards? bare board test is a must

  2. Did you specify impedance on your gerber layout instructions?

  3. Did you run simulations on your layout with tolerances?

  4. Dielectric constant on boards and #of layers of pre-preg control the impedance of stripline and microstrip along with trace width and gap.

    There are many free online Z calculators for stripline.

    You can try to measure capacitance on large tracks or ground planes and compare both bare boards.

    Also look at the signals with a high speed scope and observe overshoot and clock<>data eye pattern.

There has to be a simple explanation for the errors, but its not easy to find. But once you find the root cause... you won't make that mistake again.

added: Another mistake I found is your stack height diagram does not indicate the Cu layer thickness and there is insufficient to fit in 6 layers unless it is wrong or the Cu thickness is 0.039 mm (NOT ;)

added: Which bus termination scheme did you use? bus method (1) is preferred, Is 1.25Vdc clean?


  1. Did pay for ICT on these boards? bare board test is a must

  2. Did you specify impedance on your gerber layout instructions?

  3. Did you run simulations on your layout with tolerances?

  4. Dielectric constant on boards and #of layers of pre-preg control the impedance of stripline and microstrip along with trace width and gap.

    There are many free online Z calculators for stripline.

    You can try to measure capacitance on large tracks or ground planes and compare both bare boards.

    Also look at the signals with a high speed scope and observe overshoot and clock<>data eye pattern.

There has to be a simple explanation for the errors, but its not easy to find. But once you find the root cause... you won't make that mistake again.

added: Another mistake I found is your stack height diagram does not indicate the Cu layer thickness and there is insufficient to fit in 6 layers unless it is wrong or the Cu thickness is 0.039 mm (NOT ;)

2nd add We assumed your design was margin tested and the code was perfect in your questions. (not) I suggest you verify the following;

  1. Configure the IO to have fast slew and disable the input filters
  2. Enable the input mode on the clock
  3. Set the slew bit (9?) to increase the slew rate for the SDRAM interface pins
  4. Enable repeater mode since they are bi-directional and must not be left floating on a cmos input.
  5. Change the supply voltage to determine sensitivity to error.
  6. default reset mode for a data bus pin is FUNC=0X00, MODE=0X02, HYSTERESIS=ENABLED, INVERT=DISABLED, and SLEW=STANDARD
  7. Does your call to PINSEL_ConfigPin() with a new function value, reset the MODE to INACTIVE (no pull-down/pull-up resistor) and turn off HYSTERESIS?
  8. Are you using a for/next loops or discrete code such as;
  • LPC_IOCON->P3_0 |= 1; // D0 @ P3.0
  • LPC_IOCON->P3_1 |= 1; // D1 @ P3.1
  • LPC_IOCON->P3_2 |= 1; // D2 @ P3.2 etc.
  1. Do you assert to re-enable the WE pin, every time when needed?
  2. Do you use? *pPIN &= ~(0x00000007);//Clear function bits"

I remember debugging my 1st CMOS design from a Physics post grad student for a Seismic portable recording, switchable timer logic board. There was no firmware or uC but he never did a worst case tolerance analysis and the hardware had race conditions all over the place when a dozen more boards were built and debugged by myself. The Seismic Prof brought over the Head of Physics Dept to ask why I could not make debug the boards, then I had to advise him component variation exposed many design flaws called timing race conditions due to metastable conditions and clock edge used. He still still didn't understand, then I asked him tell me how many fingers I unfolded while I was raising my hand before it reached my waist level from low to high. Then he said , you can't do that and expect a correct answer. I said, precisely. Thats a primitive race condition. They get less obvious with more levels of complexity. U of Manitoba 1973.

1st added: Which bus termination scheme did you use? bus method (1) is preferred, Is 1.25Vdc clean?


  1. Did pay for ICT on these boards? bare board test is a must

  2. Did you specify impedance on your gerber layout instructions?

  3. Did you run simulations on your layout with tolerances?

  4. Dielectric constant on boards and #of layers of pre-preg control the impedance of stripline and microstrip along with trace width and gap.

    There are many free online Z calculators for stripline.

    You can try to measure capacitance on large tracks or ground planes and compare both bare boards.

    Also look at the signals with a high speed scope and observe overshoot and clock<>data eye pattern.

There has to be a simple explanation for the errors, but its not easy to find. But once you find the root cause... you won't make that mistake again.

added: Another mistake I found is your stack height diagram does not indicate the Cu layer thickness and there is insufficient to fit in 6 layers unless it is wrong or the Cu thickness is 0.039 mm (NOT ;)

added 206 characters in body
Source Link
D.A.S.
  • 148k
  • 3
  • 56
  • 190

added: Which bus termination scheme did you use? bus method (1) is preferred, Is 1.25Vdc clean?


  1. Did pay for ICT on these boards? bare board test is a must

  2. Did you specify impedance on your gerber layout instructions?

  3. Did you run simulations on your layout with tolerances?

  4. Dielectric constant on boards and #of layers of pre-preg control the impedance of stripline and microstrip along with trace width and gap.

    There are many free online Z calculators for stripline.

    You can try to measure capacitance on large tracks or ground planes and compare both bare boards.

    Also look at the signals with a high speed scope and observe overshoot and clock<>data eye pattern.

There has to be a simple explanation for the errors, but its not easy to find. But once you find the root cause... you won't make that mistake again.

added: Another mistake I found is your stack height diagram does not indicate the Cu layer thickness and there is insufficient to fit in 6 layers unless it is wrong or the Cu thickness is 0.039 mm (NOT ;)

  1. Did pay for ICT on these boards?

  2. Did you specify impedance on your gerber layout instructions?

  3. Did you run simulations on your layout with tolerances?

  4. Dielectric constant on boards and #of layers of pre-preg control the impedance of stripline and microstrip along with trace width and gap.

    There are many free online Z calculators for stripline.

    You can try to measure capacitance on large tracks or ground planes and compare both bare boards.

    Also look at the signals with a high speed scope and observe overshoot and clock<>data eye pattern.

There has to be a simple explanation for the errors, but its not easy to find. But once you find the root cause... you won't make that mistake again.

added: Another mistake I found is your stack height diagram does not indicate the Cu layer thickness and there is insufficient to fit in 6 layers unless it is wrong or the Cu thickness is 0.039 mm (NOT ;)

added: Which bus termination scheme did you use? bus method (1) is preferred, Is 1.25Vdc clean?


  1. Did pay for ICT on these boards? bare board test is a must

  2. Did you specify impedance on your gerber layout instructions?

  3. Did you run simulations on your layout with tolerances?

  4. Dielectric constant on boards and #of layers of pre-preg control the impedance of stripline and microstrip along with trace width and gap.

    There are many free online Z calculators for stripline.

    You can try to measure capacitance on large tracks or ground planes and compare both bare boards.

    Also look at the signals with a high speed scope and observe overshoot and clock<>data eye pattern.

There has to be a simple explanation for the errors, but its not easy to find. But once you find the root cause... you won't make that mistake again.

added: Another mistake I found is your stack height diagram does not indicate the Cu layer thickness and there is insufficient to fit in 6 layers unless it is wrong or the Cu thickness is 0.039 mm (NOT ;)

added 216 characters in body; edited body
Source Link
D.A.S.
  • 148k
  • 3
  • 56
  • 190
  1. Did pay for ICT on these boards?

  2. Did you specify impedance on your gerber layout instructions?

  3. Did you run simulations on your layout with tolerances?

  4. Dielectric constant on boards and #of layers of pre-preg control the impedance of stripline and microstrip along with trace width and gap.

    There are many free online Z calculators for stripline.

    You can try to measure capacitance on large tracks or ground planes and compare both bare boards.

    Also look at the signals with a high speed scope and observe overshoot and clock<>data eye pattern.

There has to be a simple explanation for the errors, but its not easy to find. But once you find the root cause... you won't make that mistake again.

added: Another mistake I found is your stack height diagram does not indicate the Cu layer thickness and there is insufficient to fit in 6 layers unless it is wrong or the Cu thickness is 0.039 mm (NOT ;)

  1. Did pay for ICT on these boards?

  2. Did you specify impedance on your gerber layout instructions?

  3. Did you run simulations on your layout with tolerances?

  4. Dielectric constant on boards and #of layers of pre-preg control the impedance of stripline and microstrip along with trace width and gap.

    There are many free online Z calculators for stripline.

    You can try to measure capacitance on large tracks or ground planes and compare both bare boards.

    Also look at the signals with a high speed scope and observe overshoot and clock<>data eye pattern.

There has to be a simple explanation for the errors, but its not easy to find. But once you find the root cause... you won't make that mistake again.

  1. Did pay for ICT on these boards?

  2. Did you specify impedance on your gerber layout instructions?

  3. Did you run simulations on your layout with tolerances?

  4. Dielectric constant on boards and #of layers of pre-preg control the impedance of stripline and microstrip along with trace width and gap.

    There are many free online Z calculators for stripline.

    You can try to measure capacitance on large tracks or ground planes and compare both bare boards.

    Also look at the signals with a high speed scope and observe overshoot and clock<>data eye pattern.

There has to be a simple explanation for the errors, but its not easy to find. But once you find the root cause... you won't make that mistake again.

added: Another mistake I found is your stack height diagram does not indicate the Cu layer thickness and there is insufficient to fit in 6 layers unless it is wrong or the Cu thickness is 0.039 mm (NOT ;)

Source Link
D.A.S.
  • 148k
  • 3
  • 56
  • 190
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