[SI-LIST] Re: How good is enough(Power Integrity)

Steve, All,
XAPP623 has indeed been updated (April 5).  Following are the major changes:

*Capacitor land patterns were redrawn and augmented with optimal 
dimensions for current PCB tech (Figs 5 and 6)
*New section on stackup order was added (Page 7)
*New section on ceramic capacitor anti-resonance was added (Page 9)
*Example decoupling capacitor layout added (Figure 7)
*Recommended capacitor values were tweaked for flatter Z and fewer 
values (Table 6)
*Measurements section updated with more details and techniques (Pages 17-21)

All text got an overhaul, so there's a lot of small updates throughout.

The appnote can be downloaded here 
<http://www.xilinx.com/bvdocs/appnotes/xapp623.pdf>.

There is ongoing work to tighten all this up, so comments and 
suggestions are most welcome.

-mark



steve weir wrote:

>Bryce, a couple of additional comments:
>
>1) A major source of frustration in the OEM world is the general dearth of 
>accurate decoupling requirements from the IC manufacturers.  Often the only 
>way to determine the actual decoupling requirements is to build up a board 
>with the device in question and exercise it.  I find this inexcusable, but 
>just the same quite common.
>
>2) Looking at voltages can be very useful, but requires some care.  It is 
>easy to be misled into either a false sense of security or an incorrect 
>sense of panic by taking inappropriate measurements.
>
>3) Different authors offer varying opinions about the importance of 
>capacitor placement.  There are a couple of factors the biggest of which 
>depends greatly on the Er of the plane dielectric.  If the capacitor is 
>within lambda / 10, which is common for FR4 boards, then placement affects 
>the transfer impedance at the DUT.  If the capacitor is outside lambda / 4, 
>then the planes behave as a transmission line and additional movement of 
>the capacitor has little effect, unless it lines up on a multiple of lambda 
>/ 4.  For odd multiples, it is possible to make the capacitor virtually 
>disappear.  High Er materials greatly reduce the distances versus frequency 
>for these cut-offs.
>
>4) Beware of widely spaced capacitance values particularly in different 
>packages such as the 6.8uF and 0.01uF capacitor in your example.  In like 
>packages ( unlikely ), these would exhibit mounted SRF's on the order of 
>sqrt( 680 ) : 1 or about 25:1, more than enough to have an antiresonance 
>with very high Q.  For the values involved, that would tend to occur around 
>roughly 20MHz, a place where many digital systems have lots of energy.  In 
>practice the peak will be even lower, as that 6.8uF cap is most likely 
>going to be either a large ceramic package, or at least an 'A' box tantalum 
>running about 2X-3X the mounted inductance of the 0.01uF in an 0603 case.
>
>I understand that work is underway at Xilinx to update Appnote 623.
>
>Regards,
>
>
>Steve.
>At 11:12 AM 4/23/2004 -0400, bbolton wrote:
>  
>
>>Zhangkun,
>>
>>You're right in saying that capacitive decoupling requirments vary according
>>to the load.  If you are dealing with a stand-alone SDRAM chip, for example,
>>the requirements would be different than an SDRAM memory stick.  In general,
>>follow the manufacturer's guidelines to get the PDS right by design.
>>
>>There are several ways to see if your PDS is well designed, and it depends on
>>the type of equipment available (consider short-term renting if necessary).
>>You can look at the voltage rail to determine if there is an under-voltage or
>>spike type condition present, which could be suppressed with additional &
>>correct capacitve values.  Don't be fooled into adding lots of bulk (DC)
>>capacitance, when the device under test shows problems that really require
>>high-frequency bypassing.  There is a point of diminishing returns for adding
>>caps of any value.  Using a spectrum analyzer, under wost-case operating
>>conditions, (such as forcing all 0's and 1's on the bus as suggested) look 
>>for
>>peaks in the rail power spectrum to look for frequency regions that are
>>"asking" for more current but can't get it from the present PDS.  Try to
>>"flip" the power spectrum and look for caps whose resonant frequency is
>>slightly higher than the peak you want to eliminate.  You can iteratively add
>>caps to the problematic regions of the PCB and re-measure.
>>
>>If this is your first PCB layout, pay close attention to capacitor placement,
>>as location matters.  Even if you place the recommended capicatance on the
>>board, the layout folks may place the capacitor in the wrong place, or
>>inadvertently create large current loops or vias or 1/2" traces which nullify
>>your best efforts.  Beware of autorouters.  If you are still concerned about
>>the PDS design and EMI levels on a first-revision PCB, you may wish to add
>>unpopulated pads near anticpated trouble-components (< 0.1" ), and 
>>emperically
>>figure out which capacitor lowers the noise best, by varying capacitor values
>>and minimizing the measured the rail noise.  The "best" PDS design may be a
>>combination of two good values -- such as a 6.8uF and 0.01uF pair that is
>>typically seen in high-frequency op-amp design.  Of course, this becomes
>>incredibly expensive and is application dependent.  Manufacturer's specs, and
>>iterative measurements tell you what you really need.
>>
>>Of course if you start having problems, suspect I/O signal integrity, 
>>stackup,
>>current loops, parametric variations due to multiple-supplier ICs, or other
>>areas that might have been neglected in the design.
>>
>>The best app-note that I have seen so far on PDS design is by Xilinx:
>>http://www.xilinx.com/bvdocs/appnotes/xapp623.pdf
>>Another good note by Altera is http://www.altera.com/literature/an/an315.pdf
>>
>>Good luck!
>>Bryce
>>
>>
>>----------------------------------
>>Bryce Bolton
>>bryce.bolton@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>Desk: 303-735-5914
>>FAX:  303-735-4843
>>
>>LASP (Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics)
>>Attn: Bryce Bolton, Room 167
>>1234 Innovation Drive
>>Boulder, CO 80303
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>    
>>
>>>===== Original Message From zhang_kun@xxxxxxxxxx =====
>>>Dear steve
>>>
>>>I do not express myself clear. What I want to say is that for different
>>>      
>>>
>>chips, the request of decoupling are not same. For SDRAM, the impedance of 
>>PDS
>>could be large and for other chips, the impedance of PDS should be very small
>>to make the system work well.
>>    
>>
>>>I want to know how to check whether the impedance of PDS is small enough or
>>>      
>>>
>>not.
>>    
>>
>>>Best Regards
>>>
>>>Zhangkun
>>>2004.4.23
>>>
>>>----- Original Message -----
>>>From: steve weir <weirsp@xxxxxxxxxx>
>>>Date: Friday, April 23, 2004 3:13 pm
>>>Subject: Re: [SI-LIST] How good is enough(Power Integrity)
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>>>Zhangkun, there are a whole lot of people who would take exception
>>>>to the
>>>>idea that SDRAM works well without decoupling.  I suggest that if
>>>>you
>>>>perform a stress test that charges alternate columns in an entire
>>>>row to
>>>>all 1's, and then write all 0's to one half of the columns that
>>>>w/o
>>>>external decoupling capacitors you will see bit errors in the
>>>>unwritten
>>>>columns.  A starting point for power integrity is to assign a
>>>>specific AC
>>>>noise voltage to the overall supply voltage tolerance budget, and
>>>>then
>>>>divide that by the AC current versus frequency to obtain an
>>>>impedance
>>>>versus frequency specification.
>>>>
>>>>Regards,
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>Steve.
>>>>At 02:00 PM 4/23/2004 +0800, zhangkun 29902 wrote:
>>>>        
>>>>
>>>>>Dear All
>>>>>
>>>>>How good is enough in power integrity analysis at PCB level?
>>>>>
>>>>>In my experience, for some kind of general chip such as SDRAM,
>>>>>          
>>>>>
>>>>even there
>>>>        
>>>>
>>>>>is no decoupling caps for SDRAM, they will work well. However,
>>>>>          
>>>>>
>>>>for some
>>>>        
>>>>
>>>>>chips, the power ground noise is very critical.
>>>>>
>>>>>In signal integrity, there are plenty of model to simulate. In
>>>>>          
>>>>>
>>>>power
>>>>        
>>>>
>>>>>integrity, how to do?
>>>>>
>>>>>Any advice will be prefered.
>>>>>
>>>>>Best Regards
>>>>>
>>>>>Zhangkun
>>>>>2004.4.23
>>>>>
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