Rainbow Electronics ADC14061 - Manual (Page 17)

Applications Information
(Continued)
5.0 LAYOUT AND GROUNDING
Proper grounding and proper routing of all signals are essen-
tial to ensure accurate conversion. Separate analog and
digital ground planes that are connected beneath the
ADC14061 are required to achieve specified performance.
The analog and digital grounds may be in the same layer, but
should be separated from each other and should never over-
lap each other. Separation should be at least
1 ⁄ 8 inch, where
possible.
The ground return for the digital supply (DGND I/O ) carries
the ground current for the output drivers. This output current
can exhibit high transients that could add noise to the con-
version process. To prevent this from happening, the DGND
I/O pin should NOT be connected in close proximity to any of
the ADC14061’s ground pins.
Capacitive coupling between the typically noisy digital
ground plane and the sensitive analog circuitry can lead to
poor performance that may seem impossible to isolate and
remedy. The solution is to keep the analog circuitry sepa-
rated from the digital circuitry and from the digital ground
plane.
Digital circuits create substantial supply and ground current
transients. The logic noise thus generated could have signifi-
cant impact upon system noise performance. The best logic
family to use in systems with A/D converters is one which
employs non-saturating transistor designs, or has low noise
characteristics, such as the 74LS, 74HC(T) and 74AC(T)Q
families. The worst noise generators are logic families that
draw the largest supply current transients during clock or sig-
nal edges, like the 74F and the 74AC(T) families.
Since digital switching transients are composed largely of
high frequency components, total ground plane copper
weight will have little effect upon the logic-generated noise.
This is because of the skin effect. Total surface area is more
important than is total ground plane volume.
An effective way to control ground noise is by connecting the
analog and digital ground planes together beneath the ADC
with a copper trace that is very narrow compared with the
rest of the ground plane. A typical width is 3/16 inch (4 to 5
mm).This narrowing beneath the converter provides a fairly
high impedance to the high frequency components of the
digital switching currents, directing them away from the ana-
log pins. The relatively lower frequency analog ground cur-
rents see a relatively low impedance across this narrow
ground connection.
Generally, analog and digital lines should cross each other at
90 degrees to avoid getting digital noise into the analog path.
To maximize accuracy in high speed, high resolution sys-
tems, however, avoid crossing analog and digital lines alto-
gether. It is important to keep any clock lines isolated from
ALL other lines, including other digital lines. Even the gener-
ally accepted 90 degree crossing should be avoided as even
a little coupling can cause problems at high frequencies.
This is because other lines can introduce phase noise (jitter)
into the clock line, which can lead to degradation of SNR.
Best performance at high frequencies and at high resolution
is obtained with a straight signal path. That is, the signal path
through all components should form a straight line wherever
possible.
Be especially careful with the layout of inductors. Mutual in-
ductance can change the characteristics of the circuit in
which they are used. Inductors should not be placed side by
side, even with just a small part of their bodies beside each
other.
The analog input should be isolated from noisy signal traces
to avoid coupling of spurious signals into the input. Any ex-
ternal component (e.g., a filter capacitor) connected be-
tween the converter’s input and ground should be connected
to a very clean point in the analog ground plane.
Figure 9 gives an example of a suitable layout. All analog cir-
cuitry (input amplifiers, filters, reference components, etc.)
should be placed on or over the analog ground plane. All
digital circuitry and I/O lines should be placed over the digital
ground plane.
All ground connections should have a low inductance path to
ground.
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