Dong, The best way to convince him, perhaps, is to ignore his advice and do a proper PDS design like you want to. Then, when the results come in prove it to him based on your evidence. I have been doing 3GIG and 10GIG SERDES designs for 8 years and only used ferrite beads once. That was my first SERDES design and I too followed advice of someone else - It was also the only time my SERDES design didn't work! Since, I have never used a ferrite bead (initially ignoring several people and doing my own engineering) and have been successful for the last 7 years - including across backplanes. The key, though, is performing a PDS (which includes instantaneous currents and a stable power supply) and not just simply removing the ferrite beads. Dan -----Original Message----- From: si-list-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:si-list-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Lee Ritchey Sent: Monday, January 03, 2011 9:44 AM To: Dong Kim; steve weir; si-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Cc: Istvan Novak; liuluping 41830 Subject: [SI-LIST] Re: anlog and digital power plane isolation with ferrite bead good idea? Dong, I have attached a PDS design program from Altera. Notice that it does not include any ferrite beads. same kind of thing is available from Xilinx. Yes, old applications notes from both Altera an Xilinx said to use ferrite beads. This was never good advice and has finally been taken from their app notes, but not before may engineers got conned into using ferrite beads. Lee -------------------------------------------------- From: "Dong Kim" <kimdongsik_us@xxxxxxxxx> Sent: Monday, December 27, 2010 4:03 PM To: "Lee Ritchey" <leeritchey@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>; "steve weir" <weirsi@xxxxxxxxxx>; <si-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Cc: "Istvan Novak" <istvan.novak@xxxxxxx>; "liuluping 41830" <liuluping@xxxxxxxxxx> Subject: [SI-LIST] anlog and digital power plane isolation with ferrite bead good idea? > Hi, > > My colleague, a PDN engineer, insist he has to use ferrite bead to isolate > an analog power plane from digital plane for an large FPGA I am using on a > PCB design. > I have been trying to convince him it would be better to have good > decoupling filter by adding inner-plane capacitance and decoupling caps. > > But, he is insisting I should prove it either by theory or simulation > before he can change his mind to remove the isolation ferrite bid and add > planer cap in my board stack-up. I could not really prove by methodical > thory nor have time and tool to simulate. > > With my shallow knowledge, it will just end with arguing even if he agree > to do what I tell him to do. > My knowledge is from my past board design with similar characteristics, I > did not use the ferrite to isolate the analog and digital power planes. > It worked fine. > I also has shown him Lee Ritch's 2nd volume of "Right the first time". > But, I guess it did not convince him. > > Please someone explain why analog and digital power isolation by using may > be not a good idea. > > Please help. > > Thanks, > > Dong S. Kim > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------ > 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 > > ------------------------------------------------------------------ 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------ 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