
AD1870
REV. 0
–10–
Layout and Decoupling Considerations
Obtaining the best possible performance from the AD1870
requires close attention to board layout. Adhering to the follow-
ing principles will produce typical values of 92 dB dynamic range
and 90 dB S/(THD + N) in target systems. Schematics and lay-
out artwork of the AD1870 Evaluation Board, which implement
these recommendations, are available from Analog Devices.
The principles and their rationales are listed below. The first
two pertain to bypassing and are illustrated in Figure 3.
5V
ANALOG
5V
DIGITAL
5V
DIGITAL
AD1870
CAPL2
CAPL1
CLKIN
AGND
AV
DD
DV
DD
1 DGND1 DGND2 DV
DD
2
470pF
NPO
AGNDL V
REF
L V
REF
R AGNDR
CAPR2
CAPR1
470pF
NPO
OSCILLATOR
5V
DIGITAL
10nF
470pF
NPO
470pF
NPO
10nF
1 F
0.1 F
1 F
1 F
0.1 F
4.7 F
0.1 F
4.7 F
0.1 F
Figure 3. Recommended Bypassing and Oscillator Circuits
There are two pairs of digital supply pins on opposite sides of
the part (Pins 4 and 5, and Pins 24 and 25). The user should
tie a bypass chip capacitor (10 nF ceramic) in parallel with a
decoupling capacitor (1
μ
F tantalum) on EACH pair of supply
pins as close to the pins as possible. The traces between these
package pins and the capacitors should be as short and as wide
as possible. This will prevent digital supply current transients
from being inductively transmitted to the inputs of the part.
Use a 0.1
μ
F chip analog capacitor in parallel with a 1.0
μ
F
tantalum capacitor from the analog supply (Pin 9) to the analog
ground plane. The trace between this package pin and the
capacitor should be as short and as wide as possible.
The AD1870 should be placed on a split ground plane. The
digital ground plane should be placed under the top end of the
package, and the analog ground plane should be placed under
the bottom end of the package as shown in Figure 4. The split
should be between Pins 8 and 9 and between Pins 20 and 21.
The ground planes should be tied together at one spot under-
neath the center of the package with an approximately 3 mm
trace. This ground plane technique also minimizes RF transmis-
sion and reception.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
28
27
26
25
24
23
22
21
20
19
18
17
16
15
L
R
CK
WCLK
BCLK
DGND1
DV
DD
1
RDEDGE
S/
M
384/
256
AV
DD
V
IN
L
CAPL1
CAPL2
AGNDL
V
REF
L
CLKIN
TAG
SOUT
DV
DD
2
RESET
MSBDLY
R
L
JUST
AGND
V
IN
R
CAPR1
CAPR2
AGNDR
V
REF
R
DGND2
DIGITAL GROUND PLANE
ANALOG GROUND PLANE
Figure 4. Recommended Ground Plane
Each reference pin (14 and 15) should be bypassed with a 0.1
μ
F
ceramic chip capacitor in parallel with a 4.7
μ
F tantalum capaci-
tor. The 0.1
μ
F chip cap should be placed as close to the pack-
age pin as possible, and the trace to it from the reference pin
should be as short and as wide as possible.
Keep this trace away
from any analog traces (Pins 10, 11, 12, 17, 18, 19)
. Coupling
between input and reference traces will cause even order harmonic
distortion. If the reference is needed somewhere else on the
printed circuit board, it should be shielded from any signal
dependent traces to prevent distortion.
Wherever possible, minimize the capacitive load on the digital
outputs of the part. This will reduce the digital spike currents
drawn from the digital supply pins and help keep the IC sub-
strate quiet.
How to Extend SNR
A cost-effective method of improving the dynamic range and
SNR of an analog-to-digital conversion system is to use multiple
AD1870 channels in parallel with a common analog input. This
technique makes use of the fact that the noise in independent
modulator channels is uncorrelated. Thus every doubling of the
number of AD1870 channels used will improve system dynamic
range by 3 dB. The digital outputs from the corresponding deci-
mator channels have to be arithmetically averaged to obtain the
improved results in the correct data format. A microprocessor,
either general-purpose or DSP, can easily perform the averaging
operation.