Designing high speed boards with free or low cost software?

Hello,

I'd like to learn how to layout high frequency boards (specifically high speed serial - low GHz range). I don't have a preferred capture/layout package, but want to do this at home so need a low cost one.

I have seen a number of packages, such as KiCAD, DesignSpark and soon CircuitMaker, but am not sure how easy they are to use for boards such as this. It doesn't help that I am not sure of exactly what features I need as I have not done such a board before. I know that technically I don't *need* things like impedance estimation, differential trace routing, length tuning or analog simulation, but I'd like to match the practice as if it were done professionally as well as possible (and also think this will be hard enough as it is!)

Does anyone here design high speed boards with such software? Can they tell me which one they use and how they find it?

Sj

Are you interested primarily in synthesis of track geometry, or analysis of tracks on a board?

If analysis, then I suspect you will have to use high-end "professional" (=> expensive, steep learning curve) CAD. I'd welcome hearing experience to the contrary.

If synthesis, then you can probably get away with using any of the many microstrip/stripline tools on the web, understandign the rules of thumb, and then hand routing a few "ideal" tracks. I suspect an issue will be obtaining a sufficiently accurate definition of the board stackup for you to plug into the synthesis tools.

A useful set of "rules of thumb" can be found at https://www.edn.com/collections/4435129/Bogatin-s-Rules-of-Thumb