PCB High-Speed Signal Design Guidelines: Agilex™ 5 FPGAs and SoCs

ID 821801
Date 11/18/2024
Public
Document Table of Contents

7. True Differential I/O Interface PCB Routing Guidelines (VPBGA and MBGA)

This chapter covers the PCB layout design guidelines for true differential I/O interfaces.

Board Routing Guide for True Differential I/O Interfaces

True differential I/O interfaces consists of connectors, cables, board vias, and traces. There are two types of board topologies for true differential I/O interfaces: single board and board-to-board as shown in the following figures. Both types support up to 1.6 Gbps. The maximum recommended trace length is 9 inches for single board topology and a total length of 20.8 inches for board-to-board topology. The routing length is estimated based on FR-4 level PCB material.

Figure 70. Single Board Topology
Figure 71. Board to Board Topology

Board designers are recommended to follow these guidelines to meet both true differential I/O interface topologies:

  • Use a 100-ohm differential trace impedance.
  • Maintain 5 × h for stripline inter pair to pair spacing and 7 × h for microstrip pair to pair spacing, where 'h' is the distance from the signal layer to the closest reference layer.
  • Ensure that the length matching between P-N should be less than 5 mil and the data-to-clock should be less than ±50 mils. Consider the package length when performing length matching.
  • Avoid long stubs which can degrade electrical performance.
  • Altera recommends ground referencing for stripline routing.

True Differential I/O Specifications

You must design the true differential interface to meet the timing channel analysis requirements. Refer to the following table for the Tx jitter specification and voltage input differential requirements.
Table 19.  Supported LVDS SERDES Data Rate with Tx Jitter Spec and Voltage Input Differential
Maximum Data Rate 1600 Mbps
Tx Jitter- True Differential I/O Standard Refer to the Agilex™ 5 FPGAs and SoCs Data Sheet.
Voltage Input Different (Eye Height) Refer to the Agilex™ 5 FPGAs and SoCs Data Sheet.
Note: The LVDS SERDES data rate varies according to the device speed grade. Refer to the related information section for details on the supported data rate across different device speed grade.