Signal conditioners boast 6mW/Gb signal reach

Texas Instruments Inc. (TI) has rolled out 10 signal conditioning ICs that claim to address signal issues caused by insertion loss, jitter, reflections and crosstalk in high-speed enterprise servers, routers and switches. Produced using the company’s BiCMOS SiGe process technology, the repeaters and timers are intended to drive high-speed interface standards such as 10G/40G/100G Ethernet, 10G-KR (802.3ap), InfiniBand, Fiber Channel and CPRI.

TI’s portfolio, which includes the DS1xxDF410, DS1xxRT410 and DS100KRxxx families, boasts less than 6mW/Gb signal reach performance. The devices are capable of extending reach to exceed more than 50in of FR-4 backplane or 20m of 26-AWG copper cable. They feature 36dB input EQ and 12dB output de-emphasis, multitap decision feedback equalizer, and clock and data recovery. Likewise, the repeaters consume 65mW per channel, while the retimers with CDR use up to 150mW per channel.

Simplifying system design, the signal conditioners feature an internal clock synthesis that eliminates the need for an external reference clock, and built-in eye monitor and PRBS generator that eases system debug. Additionally, the devices flaunt fully adaptive EQ that simplifies link tuning.

The signal conditioners are used to drive optical and direct-attach passive copper cables in latency-sensitive, front-port line cards, while meeting SFF8431 (SFP+) specifications. System designers can choose from repeaters (EQ and DE driver), retimers (EQ, CDR and DE driver) and advanced retimers (EQ, CDR, DFE and DE driver) to achieve the desired link performance and system cost without having to redesign their board.

The DS125DF410 (9.8G to 12.5G), DS110DF410 (8.5G to 11.3G) and DS100DF410 (10.3G) multi-rate quad-channel advanced retimers provide multi-tap DFE, adaptive EQ, CDR and DE driver. The DS125RT410, DS110RT410 and DS100RT410 multi-rate quad-channel retimers provide adaptive EQ, CDR and DE driver. The DS100KR800 octal-channel (unidirectional) and DS100KR401 octal-channel (bidirectional) repeaters support x4/x8 10G-KR (802.3ap) connectivity, and allow end-to-end transmit equalization negotiation between the host controller and endpoint as specified by 802.3ap.

To support redundancy and fail-over applications, TI offers 10.3G and 14.2G mux/buffers that support two- and four-port switching capability. Both devices support 10G-KR transmit link training. The DS100MB203 multi-rate, dual lane 2:1/1:2 mux/buffer provides EQ and DE, and supports data rates up to 10.3G, while the SN65LVCP114 quad-lane 2:1/1:2 mux/buffer provides a linear EQ and supports data rates up to 14.2G.

The ICs are now sampling with volume production scheduled in late Q1 2012. The DS1xxDF410 and DS1xxRT410 quad-channel retimers are offered in 7x7mm, 48-pin leadless LLP packages, while the DS100KRxxx octal-channel repeaters and DS100MB203 dual-lane mux/buffer are sold in 10x5.5mm, 54-pin LLPs. The SN65LVCP114 quad-lane mux/buffer is packaged in a 12x12mm, 167-pin BGA.

Suggested retail price for these ICs ranges from $9.95 to $18 in 1,000-unit quantities.


Texas Instruments Inc.