Table 6. Design Parameters

9.2.3.1 Supply Voltage

The SN65MLVD20xB are operated from a single supply. The devices can support operation with a supply as low as 3 V and as high as 3.6 V.

9.2.3.2 Supply Bypass Capacitance

Bypass capacitors play a key role in power distribution circuitry. At low frequencies, power supply offers very low-impedance paths between its terminals. However, as higher frequency currents propagate through power traces, the source is often incapable of maintaining a low-impedance path to ground. Bypass capacitors are used to address this shortcoming. Usually, large bypass capacitors (10 μF to 1000 μF) at the board level do a good job up into the kHz range. Due to their size and length of their leads, large capacitors tend to have large inductance values at the switching frequencies. To solve this problem, smaller capacitors (in the nF to μF range) must be installed locally next to the integrated circuit.

Multilayer ceramic chip or surface-mount capacitors (size 0603 or 0805) minimize lead inductances of bypass capacitors in high-speed environments, because their lead inductance is about 1 nH. For comparison purposes, a typical capacitor with leads has a lead inductance around 5 nH.

The value of the bypass capacitors used locally with M-LVDS chips can be determined by Equation 1 and Equation 2, according to High Speed Digital Design – A Handbook of Black Magic by Howard Johnson and Martin Graham (1993). A conservative rise time of 4 ns and a worst-case change in supply current of 100 mA covers the whole range of M-LVDS devices offered by Texas Instruments. In this example, the maximum power supply noise tolerated is 100 mV; however, this figure varies depending on the noise budget available for the design.

Equation 1.

Equation 2.

Figure 18 shows a configuration that lowers lead inductance and covers intermediate frequencies between the board-level capacitor (>10 µF) and the value of capacitance found above (0.004 µF). Place the smallest value of capacitance as close as possible to the chip.

Figure 18. Recommended M-LVDS Bypass Capacitor Layout

9.2.3.3 Driver Input Voltage

The input stage accepts LVTTL signals. The driver will operate with a decision threshold of approximately 1.4 V.

9.2.3.4 Driver Output Voltage

The driver outputs a steady state common mode voltage of 1 V with a differential signal of 540 V under nominal conditions.

9.2.3.5 Termination Resistors

As shown earlier, an M-LVDS communication channel employs a current source driving a transmission line which is terminated with two resistive loads. These loads serve to convert the transmitted current into a voltage at the receiver input. To ensure good signal integrity, the termination resistors should be matched to the characteristic impedance of the transmission line. The designer should ensure that the termination resistors are within 10% of the nominal media characteristic impedance. If the transmission line is targeted for 100-Ω impedance, the termination resistors should be between 90 Ω and 110 Ω. The line termination resistors are typically placed at the ends of the transmission line.

9.2.3.6 Receiver Input Signal

The M-LVDS receivers herein comply with the M-LVDS standard and correctly determine the bus state. These devices have Type-1 and Type-2 receivers that detect the bus state with as little as 50 mV of differential voltage over the common mode range of –1 V to 3.4 V.

9.2.3.7 Receiver Input Threshold (Failsafe)

The MLVDS standard defines a Type-1 and Type-2 receiver. Type-1 receivers have their differential input voltage thresholds near zero volts. Type-2 receivers have their differential input voltage thresholds offset from 0 V to detect the absence of a voltage difference. The impact to receiver output by the offset input can be seen in Table 7 and Figure 19.

Figure 19. Expanded Graph of Receiver Differential Input Voltage Showing Transition Region

9.2.3.8 Receiver Output Signal

Receiver outputs comply with LVTTL output voltage standards when the supply voltage is within the range of 3 V to 3.6 V.

9.2.3.9 Interconnecting Media

The physical communication channel between the driver and the receiver may be any balanced paired metal conductors meeting the requirements of the M-LVDS standard, the key points which will be included here. This media may be a twisted pair, twinax, flat ribbon cable, or PCB traces.

The nominal characteristic impedance of the interconnect should be between 100 Ω and 120 Ω with variation no more than 10% (90 Ω to 132 Ω).

9.2.3.10 PCB Transmission Lines

As per SNLA187, Figure 20 depicts several transmission line structures commonly used in printed-circuit boards (PCBs). Each structure consists of a signal line and a return path with uniform cross-section along its length. A microstrip is a signal trace on the top (or bottom) layer, separated by a dielectric layer from its return path in a ground or power plane. A stripline is a signal trace in the inner layer, with a dielectric layer in between a ground plane above and below the signal trace. The dimensions of the structure along with the dielectric material properties determine the characteristic impedance of the transmission line (also called controlled-impedance transmission line).

When two signal lines are placed close by, they form a pair of coupled transmission lines. Figure 20 shows examples of edge-coupled microstrips, and edge-coupled or broad-side-coupled striplines. When excited by differential signals, the coupled transmission line is referred to as a differential pair. The characteristic impedance of each line is called odd-mode impedance. The sum of the odd-mode impedances of each line is the differential impedance of the differential pair. In addition to the trace dimensions and dielectric material properties, the spacing between the two traces determines the mutual coupling and impacts the differential impedance. When the two lines are immediately adjacent; for example, if S is less than 2 × W, the differential pair is called a tightly-coupled differential pair. To maintain constant differential impedance along the length, it is important to keep the trace width and spacing uniform along the length, as well as maintain good symmetry between the two lines.

Figure 20. Controlled-Impedance Transmission Lines