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SBOS275C JUNE 2003 REVISED OCTOBER 2004
www.ti.com
22
This maximum operating junction temperature is well
below most system level targets. Most applications will be
lower since an absolute worst-case output stage power
was assumed in this calculation of V
CC
/2 which is beyond
the output voltage range for the VCA810.
BOARD LAYOUT
Achieving optimum performance with a high-frequency
amplifier such as the VCA810 requires careful attention to
board layout parasitic and external component types.
Recommendations that will optimize performance include:
a) Minimize parasitic capacitance
to any AC ground for
all of the signal I/O pins. This includes the ground pin (pin
2). Parasitic capacitance on the output can cause
instability: on both the inverting input and the non-inverting
input, it can react with the source impedance to cause
unintentional band limiting. To reduce unwanted
capacitance, a window around the signal I/O pins should
be opened in all of the ground and power planes around
those pins. Otherwise, ground and power planes should
be unbroken elsewhere on the board. Place a small series
resistance (> 25
) with the input pin connected to ground
to help decouple package parasitic.
b) Minimize the distance
(< 0.25”) from the power-supply
pins to high-frequency 0.1
μ
F decoupling capacitors. At the
device pins, the ground and power plane layout should not
be in close proximity to the signal I/O pins. Avoid narrow
power and ground traces to minimize inductance between
the pins and the decoupling capacitors. The power-supply
connections should always be decoupled with these
capacitors. Larger (2.2
μ
F to 6.8
μ
F) decoupling capacitors,
effective at lower frequencies, should also be used on the
main supply pins. These capacitors may be placed
somewhat farther from the device and may be shared
among several devices in the same area of the PC board.
c) Careful selection and placement
of external
components
will
preserve
performance of the VCA810. Resistors should be a very
low reactance type. Surface-mount resistors work best
and allow a tighter overall layout. Metal-film and carbon
composition, axially-leaded resistors can also provide
good high-frequency performance. Again, keep the leads
and PC board trace length as short as possible. Never use
wire-wound type resistors in a high-frequency application.
Since the output pin is the most sensitive to parasitic
capacitance, always position the series output resistor, if
any, as close as possible to the output pin. Other network
the
high-frequency
components, such as inverting or non-inverting input
termination resistors, should also be placed close to the
package.
d) Connections to other wideband devices
on the board
may be made with short direct traces or through onboard
transmission lines. For short connections, consider the
trace and the input to the next device as a lumped
capacitive load. Relatively wide traces (50mils to 100mils)
should be used, preferably with ground and power planes
opened up around them.
e) Socketing a high-speed part like the VCA810 is not
recommended.
The additional lead length and pin-to-pin
capacitance introduced by the socket can create an
extremely troublesome parasitic network, which can make
it almost impossible to achieve a smooth, stable frequency
response. Best results are obtained by soldering the
VCA810 onto the board.
INPUT AND ESD PROTECTION
The VCA810 is built using a very high-speed
complementary bipolar process. The internal junction
breakdown voltages are relatively low for these very small
geometry devices. These breakdowns are reflected in the
Absolute Maximum Ratings
table.
All pins on the VCA810 are internally protected from ESD
by means of a pair of back-to-back reverse-biased diodes
to either power supply, as shown in Figure 21. These
diodes will begin to conduct when the pin voltage exceeds
either power supply by about 0.7V. This situation can occur
with loss of the amplifier power supplies while a signal
source is still present. The diodes can typically withstand
a continuous current of 30mA without destruction. To
insure long-term reliability, however, diode current should
be externally limited to 10mA whenever possible.
External
Pin
+V
S
V
S
Internal
Circuitry
ESD Protection diodes internally
connected to all pins.
Figure 21. Internal ESD Protection