Compact isolating backplane for routing electronic signals

摘要

A backplane circuit board for connecting network signal lines, bus signal lines, and a number of circuit cards includes a first set of traces from a first network signal connector to connectors for the circuit cards, and a second set of traces from a bus signal connector to the connectors for the circuit cards. The first set of traces and the second set of traces are separated by a uniform distance to provide electrical isolation from one another. The traces are made up of signal-active lines surrounded by signal-neutral lines for further electrical isolation. As one other mechanism for signal isolation, the backplane provides signal-neutral lines on a separate layer from, and in superposition to, the signal-active lines.