{"id":14401,"date":"2020-09-29T09:00:05","date_gmt":"2020-09-29T16:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/?p=14401"},"modified":"2022-01-07T08:26:59","modified_gmt":"2022-01-07T16:26:59","slug":"differential-pair-routing-tutorial-fusion-360","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/differential-pair-routing-tutorial-fusion-360\/","title":{"rendered":"A Guide To Differential Pair Routing With Fusion 360"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The real world is full of electrical noise. We are constantly moving in a sea of Wifi, radio-waves, cell signals, etc. Our designs need to be able to function reliably in the real world, so noise is an important design consideration. For some designs that are especially susceptible, differential signaling can be a useful technique to mitigate the influence of noise. By defining differential pairs, you can make sure that key signals in your design are protected from unwanted common-mode noise. This video tutorial walks through how to use Differential Pair Routing with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/electronics-engineer\">Fusion 360&#8217;s PCB layout editor<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/mhuFm-d1Dwo\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><b>How does differential signaling work?<\/b><\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Two copies of the original signal are sent down a pair of paths with one inverted relative to the other. Now as the signals travel down the traces, they are both affected by common-mode noise (common-mode simply means that both signals are affected in the same way), so at the end of the trace, we have the following quantities:<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-14402 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Picture1.png\" alt=\"differential-pair-routing-fusion-360\" width=\"936\" height=\"374\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Picture1.png 936w, https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Picture1-300x120.png 300w, https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Picture1-768x307.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 936px) 100vw, 936px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Trace 1 has Signal + Noise, whereas Trace 2 has -Signal + Noise. The op-amp at the end represents the difference operation (this is the origin of the word differential in the term \u201cdifferential pair\u201d) that is performed on the two signals to recover our original signal. So if we work out Trace 1 &#8211; Trace 2, we get:<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Signal + Noise &#8211; (-Signal + Noise) = Signal + Signal + Noise &#8211; Noise = 2 x Signal<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So, at the output of this configuration, we have recovered our signal and eliminated the noise that corrupted our signals as they traveled down that pair. This is obviously in ideal circumstances\u2014in practical applications, the operation isn\u2019t perfect, and the coupling between the two traces isn\u2019t perfect either. However, this clearly illustrates the benefits of this type of architecture when working with signals in noisy environments.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><b>Excercise<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After showing how Differential Pair Routing works, the above video tutorial walks through how to apply that knowledge to a micro USB connector.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After defining our connections, use the \u201cName\u201d command to name your new signal.\u00a0 You will be using the same name with the difference of assigning the suffix _N and the next net _P.\u00a0 This will alert Fusion 360 of the existence of a differential pair configuration. At this point, the clearance between both traces can be defined using NET Class, but for this example, use the clearance setting defined in the \u201cDesign Rule Checker.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Next, use the Differential Pair Routing option available in the route pull-down menu. You will notice that all defined differential pairs will conveniently highlight. After selecting one of the signals, the other will simply follow alongside. Press enter at the destination, and quick route will end your routes. Traditionally, you would have had to finish each one independently. <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Set up your environment for Push and Shove with the \u201cvia\u201d option enabled. This will make it so that as you route your Differential Pair, you will be able to move traces or \u201cvias\u201d that might be in your path. Once you reach your destination, press \u201center\u201d to have Quick Route finish this process for you.<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Finally, use the meander command to fine-tune your length matching. If meander are required, they will appear\u2014on your mouse cursor you will notice the length difference by length and percentage.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Making your product smart is only one tab away. Accomplish easy Differential Pair Routing and explore more electronics capabilities with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/free-trial\">Fusion 360<\/a> today.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/free-trial\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-13104 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Download.png\" alt=\"download-fusion-360\" width=\"280\" height=\"43\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Including how to save time by automating multiple steps. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3911,"featured_media":14402,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[359],"tags":[209,207],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-14401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-electronics-engineering","tag-electrical-engineer","tag-electronics","dhig-theme--light"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>A Guide To Differential Pair Routing With Fusion 360<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Differential Pair Routing helps you make sure that key signals in your design are protected from unwanted common-mode noise.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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Robledo","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/edwin-headshot-150x150.jpg99104a7458ebc06e35b3a1ab1af8476c","url":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/edwin-headshot-150x150.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/edwin-headshot-150x150.jpg","caption":"Edwin Robledo"},"description":"I began my career in the communications industry, primarily with the implementation of fiber optics communications and data management. I joined the EAGLE team 25 years ago to satisfy my passion for being involved with circuit board designs. I\u2019m the Technical Marketing Engineer for Fusion 360 electronics and part of the Fusion 360 community team. I have published best practices articles, Blogs, hundreds of video tutorials, and hosted several electronic design bootcamps. 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