[SI-LIST] Re: HIGH DC Current on GND Plane

Vinu,

Yes, if the SerDes signals are sandwitched between ground layers, you 
are safer.  However, if you use through vias, which go through the power 
distribution plane pairs, there is still some chance that noise from the 
power rails couples to the signals, so in that case proper bypassing is 
still important. 

Regards,
Istvan


Vinu Arumugham wrote:

>Istvan,
>I think your comments apply to serdes signals routed as stripline traces 
>that are referenced to both a power plane and a ground plane.
>
>If the traces are routed referencing only ground planes and these ground 
>planes also serve as power return, I think the serdes signals will be 
>unaffected.
>
>Do you agree?
>
>Thanks,
>Vinu
>
>istvan novak wrote:
>  
>
>>Hi Joe,
>>
>>There are the following generic guidelines that come to my mind, not 
>>knowing the
>>details of the system:
>>- if the 60A power rail serves also as reference for SerDes lines, it 
>>has to be quited sufficiently
>>for that purpose, which means that you need to design that rail as a 
>>high-speed power rail.
>>This is especially true if you also need to carry reference clock or 
>>sensitive low-level analog
>>signals around the backplane. 
>>- if you have switching regulators connected to this rail (most probably 
>>you have), either
>>feeding this rail with raw power or taking this voltage to generate 
>>local sypply voltages,
>>you want to check very carefully for high-frequency ringing generated by 
>>the converters.
>>Today the ringing can be anywhere in the 50-500MHz frequency range; if 
>>they spread
>>freely on the power rail, it will reduce your SerDes margin.  
>>Unfortunately the ringing
>>is not limited by converter specifications (in other words there is no 
>>spec item for the
>>potential high-frequency ringing).
>>- as others pointed out, you dont need to worry about saturation of 
>>copper, unless you
>>have local features increasing the current density too much.  Make sure 
>>you use the
>>largest area that you can afford and many vias for connecting the 
>>high-current inputs
>>and outputs.
>>
>>Regards,
>>
>>Istvan Novak
>>SUN Microsystems
>>
>>Joe Paul M wrote:
>>
>>  
>>    
>>
>>>I have a midplane carrying 60Amps of current and Same GND plane is used 
>>>as reference for multiple of 6.6 Ghz serdes lines , PCI-e lines and GE lines
>>>Is there anything similar to 'saturation' in Inductors applicable to GND 
>>>plane?
>>>( Due to saturation of flux in the flux carrying medium , beyond a 
>>>certain amount of DC current inductors saturate and wont act as 
>>>inductors for any AC superimposed on the DC. )
>>>Will cross talk increase due to the absence of mutual inductance between 
>>>signals and gnd plane ?
>>>Is there anything else that can go wrong due to this DC , AC current 
>>>mixing in planes ??
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>      
>>>

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