Alexandre, the dearth of information from IC vendors is the biggest obstacle to proper PDN design. The industry is only shooting itself in the foot by not moving forward to provide this most basic and critical information. The scary part is that it is often because the IC vendors don't actually develop the information in the first place. Wherever possible, OEMs should push back against vendors who fail to provide this fundamental data before it becomes something the litigation sharks dig into. If you need a chip characterized Tom Dagostino's lab can do that for you. Steve. Alexandre Desnoyers wrote: > Hello Steve, > > I've been following this thread with much interest. > > I just have a problem with doing my homework: it's almost impossible > when IC vendors do not want to provide a minimum of information. I > requested some very specific information from the two biggest "PC > compatible processor" IC vendors, and both of them answered to use the > reference design ferrite filters ONLY, and they didn't provide the > information I requested to actually do my homework. > > Maybe you have some tips to share with us, apart from making a test > board or changing vendor. > > > I had a private discussion with Istvan Novak about PLL supply noise > sensitivity characterization, and he was telling me that it was not > trivial for Sun/Oracle ASIC staff to simulate. He also tried himself > to characterize one IC by measurement, and found it very difficult. > > I would like to suggest that the "brains" of our industry get together > and publish a test scheme that would provide us the required > information. I'm sure that some IC vendors have such test in-house, > but I haven't seen any publications (IEEE or other) describing such > test setup in details. > > > With the proliferation of high-speed serial link, it seems that the IC > vendors recommend one bead filter for each interface. So for a typical > processor with SATA, Ethernet, PCIe and USB3, each of these interface > "requires" an independent filter. I would like to see a SPICE > simulation showing the interaction between each of these supplies with > all the parasitic elements, maybe then I would be convinced to use one > filter for each. > > > > Looking forward to hear your presentation at DesignCon. Hopefully > there will be representative from the major IC manufacturers in the > room.... > > > Regards, > > Alexandre Desnoyers > Electronic Design Engineer > Qtechnology A/S > Valby Langgade 142, 1.sal - 2500 Valby - Denmark - www.qtec.com > > > P.S. If I had followed the recommended filtering, my 3"x4" board > would have had 19 ferrite-bead filters for only 3 ICs..... > > > > > steve weir wrote: >> Dong, the key is that either someone does the homework or there can be >> no guarantee that the design will work over the expected operating >> conditions. >> >> Steve. >> Dong Kim wrote: >> >>> Thanks everyone for the answers and opinions. >>> >From reading all the responses, I see two distinct camps of opinions. >>> Of course, if I get all the right parameters, files and the tools to >>> simulate, I will have better psudo-facts to present. >>> Most of my recent board designs, I did not have split power planes between >>> analog and digital and found no problem. May be because the board sizes are >>> large (22"x19.5") and 26 layers+ which includes multiple power and ground >>> planer caps in the stackup. >>> What I am designing is a half size add-on card with FPGA with multiple >>> serdes, DDR2 memories, and other memories. I guess I will let my PDN guy >>> make the decision to use the ferrite since I do not see any clear answer. >>> >>> I will post the result when the board is fabed and all tested out. >>> >>> Happy New Year, >>> >>> Dong KIm, >>> >>> >>> --- On Tue, 1/4/11, steve weir <weirsi@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: >>> >>> >>> From: steve weir <weirsi@xxxxxxxxxx> >>> Subject: [SI-LIST] Re: anlog and digital power plane isolation with ferrite >>> bead good idea? >>> To: "Stefan Milnor" <stefan.milnor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> >>> Cc: "Cheng, Chris" <chris.cheng@xxxxxx>, "Tom Dagostino" >>> <tom@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Joel Brown" <joel@xxxxxxxxxx>, "Dan Smith" >>> <Dan.Smith@xxxxxxxxx>, "Lee Ritchey" <leeritchey@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Dong Kim" >>> <kimdongsik_us@xxxxxxxxx>, si-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, "Istvan Novak" >>> <istvan.novak@xxxxxxx>, "liuluping 41830" <liuluping@xxxxxxxxxx> >>> Date: Tuesday, January 4, 2011, 6:59 PM >>> >>> >>> Stefan they are narrow etch segments that form small inductors. >>> >>> Steve. >>> Stefan Milnor wrote: >>> >>> >>>> What is a "trench and draw bridge" - in circuit design ? >>>> >>>> -----Original Message----- >>>> From: si-list-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:si-list-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] >>>> On Behalf Of Cheng, Chris >>>> Sent: Tuesday, January 04, 2011 4:09 PM >>>> To: Tom Dagostino; 'Joel Brown'; 'Dan Smith'; 'steve weir' >>>> Cc: 'Lee Ritchey'; 'Dong Kim'; si-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx; 'Istvan Novak'; >>>> 'liuluping 41830' >>>> Subject: [SI-LIST] Re: anlog and digital power plane isolation with >>>> ferrite bead good idea? >>>> >>>> First off I have to apologize for tangenting off from the original >>>> discussion which is isolating digital and analog power planes with >>>> beads. Personally I don't believe in them for most of the situations and >>>> at most something like a trench and a draw bridge will probably work. >>>> But too many discussions about applying beads in PLL filtering followed >>>> and I think we need to clarify a few points. >>>> There always two opposite sides of PLL loop bandwidth trade off, jitter >>>> transfer vs. jitter accumulation. >>>> If you come from the current SerDes designers, you will most likely >>>> believe in jitter transfer and cut your loop bandwidth to as low as you >>>> can do. >>>> If you come from the classic PLL applications such as CPU or ASIC >>>> internal clocks, you will most likely be more concern about core noise >>>> and jitter accumulation. >>>> I happened to come from the later school so a natural thing to do is to >>>> push the loop bandwidth of the PLL to as high as possible without >>>> sacrificing phase margin too much. The beauty of it is the PLL then can >>>> self correct its jitter up to near the PLL loop bandwidth. The side >>>> effect of this is you can easily build an internal regulator with modest >>>> damping and pretty much clean up the jitter from low to all the way to >>>> near the loop bandwidth frequency. This is when the external power >>>> filtering become interesting. Because the frequency needing protection >>>> is relatively high, the ferrite bead is ideal for the application >>>> because it has high loss at those high frequency. That would also allows >>>> a relatively small capacitor to form the filter tree and it makes a >>>> great compact external filter. The ESR of the bead can be spec to >>>> relatively low to avoid the DC drop but I found sometimes I need a small >>>> series resistor just to keep the Q low enough. That was the original >>>> design when we >>>> >>>> first investigate this PLL jitter accumulation effects in the late 80's >>>> and published the app notes for our then ASIC vendors. >>>> If you come from the "fear everything from the source jitter transfer so >>>> let's drop bandwidth as low as we can" camp, well, then why are you >>>> worry about jitter accumulation and build the power filter trees in the >>>> first place ? That's like breaking your right leg and then complain >>>> about why can't you run...... >>>> But that's a debate we have to wait for the next time. >>>> >>>> Happy New Year, >>>> >>>> Chris Cheng >>>> Distinguished Technologist , Electrical >>>> Hewlett-Packard Company >>>> >>>> +1 510 413 5977 / Tel >>>> chris.cheng@xxxxxx / Email >>>> 4209 Technology Dr >>>> Fremont, CA 94538 >>>> USA >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> -----Original Message----- >>>> From: si-list-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:si-list-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] >>>> On Behalf Of Tom Dagostino >>>> Sent: Monday, January 03, 2011 10:11 PM >>>> To: 'Joel Brown'; 'Dan Smith'; 'steve weir' >>>> Cc: 'Lee Ritchey'; 'Dong Kim'; si-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx; 'Istvan Novak'; >>>> 'liuluping 41830' >>>> Subject: [SI-LIST] Re: anlog and digital power plane isolation with >>>> ferrite bead good idea? >>>> >>>> I find the "follow the reference design" approach very iffy at best. >>>> Any >>>> filter that is places between the "outside world" and the PLL or >>>> whatever >>>> only reduces the noise from the outside world by XdB(f). So if the >>>> noise >>>> the IC vendor had in the reference design was only 50 mV and your >>>> outside >>>> world is at 100 mV or has a different frequency content you may have an >>>> issue. You need specs for what the chip can tolerate, not a cook book >>>> design. >>>> >>>> Tom Dagostino >>>> Teraspeed Labs >>>> 13610 SW Harness Lane >>>> Beaverton, OR 97008 >>>> 503-430-1065 >>>> tom@xxxxxxxxxxxxx >>>> www.teraspeed.com >>>> >>>> Teraspeed Consulting Group LLC >>>> 121 North River Drive >>>> Narragansett, RI 02882 >>>> 401-284-1827 >>>> www.teraspeed.com >>>> >>>> >>>> -----Original Message----- >>>> From: si-list-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:si-list-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] >>>> On >>>> Behalf Of Joel Brown >>>> Sent: Monday, January 03, 2011 7:09 PM >>>> To: 'Dan Smith'; 'steve weir' >>>> Cc: 'Lee Ritchey'; 'Dong Kim'; si-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx; 'Istvan Novak'; >>>> 'liuluping 41830' >>>> Subject: [SI-LIST] Re: anlog and digital power plane isolation with >>>> ferrite >>>> bead good idea? >>>> >>>> I encounter this very frequently when it comes to designing with parts >>>> that >>>> have separate analog and/or PLL power rails. It is very common for >>>> manufacturers of these parts to recommend either in a datasheet, >>>> application >>>> note or reference design to use a ferrite bead which in theory could >>>> reduce >>>> the noise that is present on the digital power supplies. Sometimes a >>>> manufacturers P/N is given for the ferrite bead and sometimes no >>>> information >>>> is given. For me when dealing with a vendor a typical scenario would be >>>> like >>>> this: >>>> >>>> Submit a question to mysupport.com "what are the noise and ripple >>>> requirement of the analog and PLL power inputs" >>>> >>>> Answer one week later "Just follow the reference design, we have tested >>>> it >>>> and it works. If you don't follow it then good luck". >>>> >>>> My options are as follows: >>>> >>>> Do a PDN analysis of the whole board and determine if the noise is low >>>> enough to directly connect the analog and/or PLL to the digital power. >>>> In reality this is a guesstimate because you can with some serious work >>>> determine with some degree of accuracy the PDN impedance but no IC >>>> manufacturer will tell you the input power current vs frequency >>>> characteristics of their part which is what you need to know what the >>>> noise >>>> voltage will actually be. >>>> >>>> Do an analysis of the ferrite / capacitor network to see how it behaves >>>> and >>>> look for problems like resonances. >>>> >>>> Replace or supplement the ferrite bead with a linear regulator to >>>> further >>>> reduce the noise. This only works for certain frequencies that the >>>> regulator >>>> will reject input noise. >>>> >>>> In the end whatever I choose to do, I think making noise measurements on >>>> the >>>> actual circuit is probably the most useful piece of information. If I >>>> didn't >>>> get it right then I can tweak the ferrite or capacitors to get it >>>> working. >>>> This hasn't happened yet. >>>> >>>> Its too bad that the manufacturers of ICs can't come up with some >>>> standardized way specifying current and noise on power pins. Everybody >>>> has >>>> IBIS or SPICE models of the signal I/O pins but when it comes to power >>>> it's >>>> a black hole. >>>> >>>> Joel >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> -----Original Message----- >>>> From: si-list-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:si-list-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] >>>> On >>>> Behalf Of Dan Smith >>>> Sent: Monday, January 03, 2011 1:34 PM >>>> To: steve weir >>>> Cc: Lee Ritchey; Dong Kim; si-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx; Istvan Novak; >>>> liuluping >>>> 41830 >>>> Subject: [SI-LIST] Re: anlog and digital power plane isolation with >>>> ferrite >>>> bead good idea? >>>> >>>> Steve that is a good point. Dong, in my experience the most difficult >>>> piece >>>> of the design (of late, all my designs) is getting the requirements out >>>> of >>>> the vendors. I use a common spreadsheet that I customize for each chip >>>> >>>> >>> >>> ------------------------------------------------------------------ >>> 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 technical documents are available at: >>> http://www.si-list.net >>> >>> List archives are viewable at: >>> //www.freelists.org/archives/si-list >>> >>> Old (prior to June 6, 2001) list archives are viewable at: >>> http://www.qsl.net/wb6tpu >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >> >> >> > -- Steve Weir IPBLOX, LLC 150 N. Center St. #211 Reno, NV 89501 www.ipblox.com (775) 299-4236 Business (866) 675-4630 Toll-free (707) 780-1951 Fax ------------------------------------------------------------------ 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 technical documents are available at: http://www.si-list.net List archives are viewable at: //www.freelists.org/archives/si-list Old (prior to June 6, 2001) list archives are viewable at: http://www.qsl.net/wb6tpu