DS90LV018A Datasheet, PDF (4/10 Pages) National Semiconductor (TI) – 3V LVDS Single CMOS Differential Line Receiver

Applications Information (Continued)
(measured from each pin to ground). The device will still op-
erate for receivers input voltages up to V_CC, but exceeding
V_CC will turn on the ESD protection circuitry which will clamp
the bus voltages.
Power Decoupling Recommendations:
Bypass capacitors must be used on power pins. Use high
frequency ceramic (surface mount is recommended) 0.1µF
and 0.001µF capacitors in parallel at the power supply pin
with the smallest value capacitor closest to the device supply
pin. Additional scattered capacitors over the printed circuit
board will improve decoupling. Multiple vias should be used
to connect the decoupling capacitors to the power planes. A
10µF (35V) or greater solid tantalum capacitor should be
connected at the power entry point on the printed circuit
board between the supply and ground.
PC Board considerations:
Use at least 4 PCB board layers (top to bottom): LVDS sig-
nals, ground, power, TTL signals.
Isolate TTL signals from LVDS signals, otherwise the TTL
signals may couple onto the LVDS lines. It is best to put TTL
and LVDS signals on different layers which are isolated by a
power/ground plane(s).
Keep drivers and receivers as close to the (LVDS port side)
connectors as possible.
Differential Traces:
Use controlled impedance traces which match the differen-
tial impedance of your transmission medium (ie. cable) and
termination resistor. Run the differential pair trace lines as
close together as possible as soon as they leave the IC
(stubs should be < 10mm long). This will help eliminate re-
flections and ensure noise is coupled as commo-mode. In
fact, we have seen that differential signals which are 1mm
apart radiate far less noise than traces 3mm apart since
magnetic field cancellation is much better with the closer
traces. In addition, noise induced on the differential lines is
much more likely to appear as common-mode which is re-
jected by the receiver.
Match electrical lengths between traces to reduce skew.
Skew between the signals of a pair means a phase differ-
ence between signals which destroys the magnetic field can-
cellation benefits of differential signals and EMI will result!
(Note that the velocity of propagation, v = c/E _r where c (the
speed of light) = 0.2997mm/ps or 0.0118 in/ps). Do not rely
solely on the autoroute function for differential traces. Care-
fully review dimensions to match differential impedance and
provide isolation for the differential lines. Minimize the num-
ber of vias and other discontinuities on the line.
Avoid 90˚ turns (these cause impedance discontinuities).
Use arcs or 45˚ bevels.
Within a pair of traces, the distance between the two traces
should be minimized to maintain common-mode rejection of
the receivers. On the printed circuit board, this distance
should remain constant to avoid discontinuities in differential
impedance. Minor violations at connection points are allow-
able.
Termination:
Use a termination resistor which best matches the differen-
tial impedance or your transmission line. The resistor should
be between 90Ω and 130Ω. Remember that the current
mode outputs need the termination resistor to generate the
differential voltage. LVDS will not work without resistor termi-
nation. Typically, connecting a single resistor across the pair
at the receiver end will suffice.
Surface mount 1% - 2% resistors are the best. PCB stubs,
component lead, and the distance from the termination to the
receiver inputs should be minimized. The distance between
the termination resistor and the receiver should be < 10mm
(12mm MAX).
Fail-Safe Feature:
The LVDS receiver is a high gain, high speed device that
amplifies a small differential signal (20mV) to CMOS logic
levels. Due to the high gain and tight threshold of the re-
ceiver, care should be taken to prevent noise from appearing
as a valid signal.
The receiver’s internal fail-safe circuitry is designed to
source/sink a small amount of current, providing fail-safe
protection (a stable known state of HIGH output voltage) for
floating, terminated or shorted receiver inputs.
1. Open Input Pins. The DS90LV018A is a single receiver
device. Do not tie the receiver inputs to ground or any
other voltages. The input is biased by internal high value
pull up and pull down resistors to set the output to a
HIGH state. This internal circuitry will guarantee a HIGH,
stable output state for open inputs.
2. Terminated Input. If the driver is disconnected (cable
unplugged), or if the driver is in a power-off condition,
the receiver output will again be in a HIGH state, even
with the end of cable 100Ω termination resistor across
the input pins. The unplugged cable can become a float-
ing antenna which can pick up noise. If the cable picks
up more than 10mV of differential noise, the receiver
may see the noise as a valid signal and switch. To insure
that any noise is seen as common-mode and not differ-
ential, a balanced interconnect should be used. Twisted
pair cable will offer better balance than flat ribbon cable.
3. Shorted Inputs. If a fault condition occurs that shorts
the receiver inputs together, thus resulting in a 0V differ-
ential input voltage, the receiver output will remain in a
HIGH state. Shorted input fail-safe is not supported
across the common-mode range of the device (GND to
2.4V). It is only supported with inputs shorted and no ex-
ternal common-mode voltage applied.
External lower value pull up and pull down resistors (for a
stronger bias) may be used to boost fail-safe in the presence
of higher noise levels. The pull up and pull down resistors
should be in the 5kΩ to 15kΩ range to minimize loading and
waveform distortion to the driver. The common-mode bias
point should be set to approximately 1.2V (less than 1.75V)
to be compatible with the internal circuitry.
Probing LVDS Transmission Lines:
Always use high impedance (> 100kΩ), low capacitance
(< 2 pF) scope probes with a wide bandwidth (1 GHz)
scope. Improper probing will give deceiving results.
Cables and Connectors, General Comments:
When choosing cable and connectors for LVDS it is impor-
tant to remember:
Use controlled impedance media. The cables and connec-
tors you use should have a matched differential impedance
of about 100Ω. They should not introduce major impedance
discontinuities.
Balanced cables (e.g. twisted pair) are usually better than
unbalanced cables (ribbon cable, simple coax) for noise re-
duction and signal quality. Balanced cables tend to generate
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