Electronic – Routing USB2 signals

There is no magic bullet here. You either use smaller trace/space widths, route it a different way, or you don't route it at all.

Good questions.

1) Does REF_CLK must be routed without vias.

Whenever you see something like "must be routed without vias" without a good explanation, chances are that someone does not fully understand what is going on and just think that is a good idea.

One of several things may be the issue:

• Different trace impedance on different layers, which will cause reflections whenever there is a via.
• Reference plane problem, because the impedance between the power planes of the design is not low enough.

Both of these are easy to avoid and is good practice - often even required if you want to pass EMI tests, build a solid design etc.

So provided you do this, you can use vias without any issues. The faster the signals, the more careful you have to design the vias. I have previously written about how to design vias for 28+ GBps signals here.

2) Does REF_CLK need termination resistor?

Best thing to do here is a quick simulation with your favorite IBIS simulator - or have someone do that for you (sorry, these tools costs money - but are worth it).

If you have very fast edge rates, chances are you need a termination resistor if the trace is electrically longer than about 1/3 of the rise/fall time. Use simulation to be sure (unfortunately you did not provide enough information about your design, or I might just have done it right away).

3) Is 4mm difference in trace length @50Mhz acceptable?

Another good question. Look at the rise/fall times of your signal. If the electrical length of the rise/fall time is significantly longer than the trace length mismatch, this will work just fine. Actually it is a good practice not to overconstrain layouts, even though it is often possible to match trace lenghts within a very narrow tolerance.