
AD8370
ADC INTERFACING
Although the AD8370 is designed to provide a 100 output
source impedance, the device is capable of driving a variety of
loads while maintaining reasonable gain and distortion per-
formance. A common application for the AD8370 is ADC
driving in IF sampling receivers and broadband wide dynamic
range digitizers. The wide gain adjustment range allows the use
of lower resolution ADCs. Figure 52 illustrates a typical ADC
interface network.
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AD8370
V
OCM
R
OP
100
C
AC
Z
S
R
IP
0
V
IN
V
IN
R
OP
C
AC
Z
S
R
IP
R
T
Z
P
Z
IN
ADC
Figure 52. Generic ADC Interface
Many factors need to be considered before defining component
values used in the interface network, such as the desired fre-
quency range of operation, the input swing, and input impedance
of the ADC. AC coupling capacitors, C
AC
, should be used to
block any potential dc offsets present at the AD8370 outputs,
which would otherwise consume the available low-end range of
the ADC. The C
AC
capacitors should be large enough so that
they present negligible reactance over the intended frequency
range of operation. The VOCM pin may serve as an external
reference for ADCs that do not include an on-board reference.
In either case, it is suggested that the VOCM pin be decoupled
to ground through a moderately large bypassing capacitor (1 nF
to 10 nF) to help minimize wideband noise pick-up.
Often it is wise to include input and output parasitic suppression
resistors, R
IP
and R
OP
. Parasitic suppressing resistors help to
prevent resonant effects that occur as a result of internal bond-
wire inductance, pad to substrate capacitance, and stray
capacitance of the printed circuit board trace artwork. If
omitted, undesirable settling characteristics may be observed.
Typically, only 10 to 25 of series resistance is all that is
needed to help dampen resonant effects. Considering that most
ADCs present a relatively high input impedance, very little
signal is lost across the R
IP
and R
OP
series resistors.
Depending on the input impedance presented by the input
system of the ADC, it may be desirable to terminate the ADC
input down to a lower impedance by using a terminating
resistor, R
T
. The high frequency response of the AD8370
exhibits greater peaking when driving very light loads. In
addition, the terminating resistor helps to better define the
input impedance at the ADC input. Any part-to-part variability
of ADC input impedance is reduced when shunting down the
ADC inputs by using a moderate tolerance terminating resistor
(typically a 1% value is acceptable).
After defining reasonable values for coupling capacitors,
suppressing resistors, and the terminating resistor, it is time to
design the intermediate filter network. The example in
Figure 52 suggests a second-order low-pass filter network
comprised of series inductors and a shunt capacitor. The order
and type of filter network used depends on the desired high
frequency rejection required for the ADC interface, as well as
on pass-band ripple and group delay. In some situations, the
signal spectra may already be sufficiently band-limited such
that no additional filter network is necessary, in which case Z
S
would simply be a short and Z
P
would be an open. In other
situations, it may be necessary to have a rather high-order anti-
aliasing filter to help minimize unwanted high frequency
spectra from being aliased down into the first Nyquist zone of
the ADC.
To properly design the filter network, it is necessary to consider
the overall source and load impedance presented by the AD8370
and ADC input, including the additional resistive contribution
of suppression and terminating resistors. The filter design can
then be handled by using a single-ended equivalent circuit as
shown in Figure 53. A variety of references that address filter
synthesis are available. Most provide tables for various filter
types and orders, indicating the normalized inductor and capaci-
tor values for a 1 Hz cutoff frequency and 1 load. After scaling
the normalized prototype element values by the actual desired
cut-off frequency and load impedance, it is simply a matter of
splitting series element reactances in half to realize the final
balanced filter network component values.
V
S
R
S
2
R
S
2
R
L
2
R
L
2
Z
S
2
Z
S
2
Z
P
V
S
R
S
R
L
Z
S
Z
P
SOURCE
LOAD
BALANCED
CONFIGURATION
SINGLE-ENDED
EQUIVALENT
0
Figure 53. Single-Ended-to-Differential Network Conversion
As an example, a second-order Butterworth low-pass filter
design is presented where the differential load impedance is
1200 , and the padded source impedance of the AD8370 is
assumed to be 120 . The normalized series inductor value for
the 10-to-1 load-to-source impedance ratio is 0.074H, and the
normalized shunt capacitor is 14.814 F. For a 70 MHz cutoff
frequency, the single-ended equivalent circuit consists of a
200 nH series inductor followed by a 27 pF capacitor. To realize
the balanced equivalent, simply split the 200 nH inductor in
half to realize the network shown in Figure 54.