AN 796: Cyclone® V and Arria® V SoC Device Design Guidelines

ID 683360
Date 3/30/2022
Public
Document Table of Contents

4.5.1.3.1. Signal Integrity

GUIDELINE: Use appropriate board-level termination on PHY outputs.

Not many PHYs offer I/O tuning for their outputs to the Cyclone® V/ Arria® V SoC, so it is wise to double check this signal path with a simulator. Place a series resistor on each signal near the PHY output pins to reduce the reflections if necessary.

GUIDELINE: Minimize reflections at PHY TX_CLK and EMAC RX_CLK inputs to prevent double-clocking.

Be cognizant if the connection is routed as a “T” as signal integrity must be maintained such that no double-edges are seen at REF_CLK loads. Ensure reflections at REF_CLK loads are minimized to prevent double-clocking.

GUIDELINE: Use a Signal Integrity (SI) simulation tool.

It is fairly straightforward to run SI simulations on these unidirectional signals. These signals are almost always point-to-point, so simply determining an appropriate series resistor to place on each signal is usually enough. Many times, this resistor is not necessary, but the device drive strength and trace lengths as well as topology should be studied when making this determination.