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waveform is a squarewave, and inductive loads can cause as
much as 1V of overshoot. This does not mean that the
current delivered to the diode has overshoot - just the
voltage seen at the EL6201 output. Measurements show that
the EL6201 output edge rate is about 300psec - a speed
nearly impossible to deliver over practical interconnects to
the diode.
General Considerations
EMI and Grounding
From an EMI point of view, the edge rate of the output
current is much more important than that of the output
voltage. The components are generally small and will be
placed over a ground plane, so antenna effects that launch
voltage-mode EMI are small. Measurement shows that a
practical current edge rate is about 1nsec., so interconnect
should be over a ground plane and short to minimize
inductively launched EMI. Most EMI seems to come from the
supply wires connected to the diode/EL6201 board. The
internal resistance and inductance of capacitors prevents
perfect bypass action, and 150mV
P-P
noise on the lines is
common. There needs to be a lossy series inductance and
secondary bypass on the supply side to control signals from
propagating down the wires. Alternatively, a series supply
resistor can be used, which will also be useful in reducing
EL6201 power dissipation. Figure 22 shows the typical
connection.
The L Series of Figure 22 must be carefully chosen. The
goal is to get a series reactance of around 70
at 300MHz,
so 40nH would suffice. The inductor should be shielded to
reduce EMI and have no saturation effects at the supply
currents drawn by the EL6201. Finally, there should be no
self-resonance at the operating frequency or its harmonics.
Also important is circuit-board layout. At the EL6201’s
operating frequencies, even the ground plane is not low-
impedance, and ground loops should be avoided. Figure 23
shows the output current loops:
For the sourcing current loop, the current flows through the
supply bypass capacitor. The ground end of the bypass thus
should be connected directly to the EL6201 ground pin
(output ground pin of the 8-pin package). A long ground
return path will cause the bypass capacitor currents to
generate voltage drops in the ground plane of the circuit
board, and other components (such as R
AMP
and R
FREQ
)
will pick this up as an interfering signal. Similarly, the ground
return of the load should be considered as noisy and other
grounded components should not connect to this path.
Slotting the ground plane around the load’s return will
eliminate adjacent grounded components from seeing the
noise.
R
FREQ
and R
AMP
Interfaces
R
AMP
and R
FREQ
should be connected to the non-load side
of the power ground to avoid noise pick-up.
Figure 24 shows an equivalent circuit of these pins. V
REF
is
roughly 0.35V for R
FREQ
and more accurately 1.17V for
R
AMP
. The R
AMP
and R
FREQ
resistor should return to the
EL6201’s ground very directly lest they pick up high-
frequency noise interference. They also should have minimal
capacitance to ground. Trimmer resistors can be used to
FIGURE 21. OUTPUT CURRENT WAVEFORM - 1GHz
BANDWIDTH
+5V
V
S
L Series: 70
reactance at
300MHz (see text)
0.1μF
Chip
EL6201
GND
0.1μF
Chip
FIGURE 22. RECOMMENDED SUPPLY BYPASSING
SINKING CURRENT LOOP
SOURCING CURRENT LOOP
SUPPLY
BYPASS
LOAD
R
FREQ
R
AMP
GND
(8-PIN
PACKAGE)
FIGURE 23. OUTPUT CURRENT LOOPS
EL6201