I had a very real and somewhat unfortunate example of Jim's explanation. I worked on a portable battery powered device that had insufficient high current bypassing on the clock generator. The result was a spreading of the clock based harmonics that actually helped emissions to the tune of about 5 dB. Fortunately, the device had enough margin to still pass CISPR 11 after the clock dither was cleaned up! Regards, Brent DeWitt -----Original Message----- From: si-list-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:si-list-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Jim Roberts Sent: Monday, December 02, 2002 10:42 AM To: MikonCons@xxxxxxx Cc: si-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [SI-LIST] Re: Decoupling of Oscillator I would aslo concur that the reference or powerplane should be kept intact for the majority of digital devices. Regarding De-coupling of power connections on digital devices: 1. Every digital [i.e. device with a threshold] is an AM/PM coverter. What that means is when you vary or modulate the amplitude you will convert it to a phase modulation. 2. The conversion rate is dependent on the risetime of the digital signal and the amplitude of the signal. Thus if the power to the device varies amplitude of an outgoing signal and/or the threshold of receiving signal will vary and produce phase modulation resulting in jitter. This is especially a problem for clocks and clock/data relationships. To determine the amount of decoupling at which ever source frequency you will need to know the amount of power ripple and its frequency, the AM/PM convertion and the setup and hold times of the receiving device. Do not forget the DC resistance of the power plane in calculating the your inductors and tantalum capacitors. If there is further interest and can send a PPT to individuals. For those using PLL devices the sensitivities associated with VCO/ICO can be far greater and require more extensive decoupling. In this case there can be good reason to divorce the 'digital' reference plane from the PLL 'analogue' reference plane. -- Regards, __________ James G Roberts /___ ____ | jrobert@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Jim __ / /___/ / jgroberts@xxxxxxxxxx / /_/ /---| | Room: BE436, Hilversum \____/ /_/ Tel: +31 35 687 4308 Fax: 5976 MikonCons@xxxxxxx wrote: > > In a message dated 11/24/2002 7:44:59 PM Pacific Standard Time, > bdewitt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx writes: > > > Maybe someone can explain it, but I've never understood adding _any_ > > additional impedance to a reference plane (call it "ground") connection. > > It > > seems I should always be aiming for the common impedance here for reference > > purposes. Creating an isolated power to reference current loop does seem > > to > > show advantage when both high speed digital and low level analog live on > > the > > same board. Am I missing something? > > Right on target, Brent. Decoupled moats with power input PI-filters and > ground "bridges" (under the outputs) to the islands created are an effective > noise isolation mechanism for clocks, but increasing the impedance on the > ground connection (in my experience) has always increased the SI and EMC > problems. On the contrary, I have successfully reduced radiated emisions, > reduced jitter performance, and cleaned up other SI problems on over 200 > PCBs for ~80 different clients over the past decade by using continuous > ground planes (along with several other of my tricks of the trade). > > Mike > > Michael L. Conn > Owner/Principal Consultant > Mikon Consulting > Cell: (408)821-9843 > > *** Serving Your Needs with Technical Excellence *** > > ------------------------------------------------------------------ > To unsubscribe from si-list: > si-list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field > > or to administer your membership from a web page, go to: > //www.freelists.org/webpage/si-list > > For help: > si-list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'help' in the Subject field > > List archives are viewable at: > //www.freelists.org/archives/si-list > or at our remote archives: > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/si-list/messages > Old (prior to June 6, 2001) list archives are viewable at: > http://www.qsl.net/wb6tpu > -- Regards, __________ James G Roberts /___ ____ | jrobert@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Jim __ / /___/ / jgroberts@xxxxxxxxxx / /_/ /---| | Room: BE436, Hilversum \____/ /_/ Tel: +31 35 687 4308 Fax: 5976 ------------------------------------------------------------------ To unsubscribe from si-list: si-list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field or to administer your membership from a web page, go to: //www.freelists.org/webpage/si-list For help: si-list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'help' in the Subject field List archives are viewable at: //www.freelists.org/archives/si-list or at our remote archives: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/si-list/messages Old (prior to June 6, 2001) list archives are viewable at: http://www.qsl.net/wb6tpu ------------------------------------------------------------------ To unsubscribe from si-list: si-list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field or to administer your membership from a web page, go to: //www.freelists.org/webpage/si-list For help: si-list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'help' in the Subject field List archives are viewable at: //www.freelists.org/archives/si-list or at our remote archives: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/si-list/messages Old (prior to June 6, 2001) list archives are viewable at: http://www.qsl.net/wb6tpu