
6
APPLICATION NOTE
AN-01
Micrel
line. If this is 5ns, the RC time constant should be larger
than 50ns and Ct should be larger than (50ns/25
) = 2nF =
200pF. A value for Ct of 10,000pF (0.01
μ
F) will work nicely.
Note that Ct is connected to V
CC
. This is because PECL
signals are generated relative to V
CC
. The V
CC
plane for
TTL is the
“
ground
”
plane for PECL.
Printed Circuit Trace Characteristics
The geometry of printed circuit traces and the dielectric
constant of the printed circuit board material holding them
determine their transmission line characteristics. Figure A1
shows the two major trace types used on PC boards: the
Surface Micro Stripline, and the Internal Stripline. Table A1
gives the equations for calculating their characteristics and
some example values. You can use these equations in a
spreadsheet to calculate the propagation delays on your
circuit board, and you can use the example values to debug
the spreadsheet.
Adding load capacitance to a trace increases its effective
distributed capacitance. This decreases its impedance and
increases the delay per inch. The equations in Table A1
give the effective termination impedance and trace delay
for single traces with capacitive loading.
Table A1 gives the unloaded characteristic impedance,
propagation delay per inch, capacitance per inch and
inductance per inch for various combinations of trace width
and board thickness for both Surface Micro Stripline and
Internal Stripline traces. Surface traces are on the board
surface over a ground plane. The board thickness (d) is the
thickness between the trace and the ground plane. A 0.012"
thickness corresponds to the surface trace of a typical 6-
layer board. Internal traces are between ground planes.
The board thickness(s) is the distance between the two
ground planes and assumes that the trace is centered
between them. The 0.026" thickness is for an internal trace
on a 6-layer board where the 0.026" is the distance from a
center ground plan to the surface layer of the board. This
0.026" thickness corresponds to 2 times layer spacing (d,
as in Micro Stripline), and trace thickness (t).
Figure A1. Printed Circuit Trace Geometries
APPENDIX 1
w
d
t
INTERNAL STRIPLINE
SURFACE MICRO STRIPLINE
d
t
w