
AD8175
Rev. 0 | Page 37 of 40
AD8175
OPn
ONn
IPn
INn
50
0
Figure 53. Fly-By Input Termination (Grounds for the two transmission lines
shown must be tied together close to the INn pin)
If multiple AD8175s are to be driven in parallel, a fly-by input
termination scheme is very useful, but the distance from each
AD8175 input to the driven input transmission line is a stub
that should be minimized in length and parasitics using the
discussed guidelines.
When driving the AD8175 single-endedly, the undriven input is
often terminated with a resistance in order to balance the input
stage. It can be seen that by terminating the undriven input with
a resistor of one-half the characteristic impedance, the input
stage will be perfectly balanced (25 Ω, for example, to balance
the two parallel 50 Ω terminations on the driven input).
However, due to the feedback in the input receiver, there is high
speed signal current leaving the undriven input. In order to
terminate this high speed signal, proper transmission line
techniques should be used. One solution is to adjust the trace
width to create a transmission line of half the characteristic
impedance and terminate the far end with this resistance (25 Ω
in a 50 Ω system). This is not often practical as trace widths
become large. In most cases, the best practical solution is to
place the half-characteristic impedance resistor as close as
possible (preferably less than 1.5 cm away) and to reduce the
parasitics of the stub (by removing the ground plane under the
stub, for example). In either case, the designer must decide if
the layout complexity created by a balanced, terminated
solution is preferable to simply grounding the undriven input at
the ball with no trace.
While the examples discussed so far are for input termination,
the theory is similar for output back-termination. Taking the
AD8175 as an ideal voltage source, any distance of routing
between the AD8175 and a back-termination resistor will be an
impedance mismatch that potentially creates reflections. For
this reason, back-termination resistors should also be placed
close to the AD8175. In practice, because back-termination
resistors are series elements, they can be placed close to the
AD8175 outputs.
Finally, the AD8175 pinout allows the user to bring the outputs
out as surface traces to the back-termination resistors. The
designer can avoid creating stubs and reflections by keeping the
AD8175 output signal path on the surface of the board. A stub
is created when a top-to-bottom via connection is made on the
output signal path that is perpendicular to the signal flow.