High speed analog-to-digital converters are required to digitize analog signals. According to one exemplary embodiment, the analog-to-digital converters output the digitized data through a parallel output port with one bit being output per line. The parallel output port has the advantage of high data throughput. However, using a parallel output bus to transmit data from an analog-to-digital converter has several disadvantages including a large numbers of traces, larger package size, noise susceptibility, timing skew between signals and high power consumption.
The accompanying drawings illustrate various embodiments of the principles described herein and are a part of the specification. The illustrated embodiments are merely examples and do not limit the scope of the disclosure.
Throughout the drawings, identical reference numbers designate similar, but not necessarily identical, elements.
In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present systems and methods. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that the present apparatus, systems and methods may be practiced without these specific details. Reference in the specification to “an embodiment,” “an example” or similar language means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment or example is included in at least that one embodiment, but not necessarily in other embodiments. The various instances of the phrase “in one embodiment” or similar phrases in various places in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment.
In many pieces of automated test equipment, analog-to-digital converters are used to capture a signal and convert it into digital information for manipulation or later analysis. In digital testing applications, it can be desirable to acquire high-frequency characteristics of the digital signals such as skew, slew, overvoltage, undervoltage, rise times, fall times, or other parameters. In these and many other applications high-speed analog-to-digital converters are used. According to one exemplary embodiment, the analog-to-digital converters output the digitized data through a parallel output port with one bit being output per line. The parallel output port has the advantage of rapidly outputting data. Particularly, in CMOS applications a parallel bus may be required because data can't be driven serially at a higher data rate per output signal. However, if the analog-to-digital converter must drive the output digital signals over a substantial distance, a substantial amount of electrical power can be consumed simply to drive the signals. It is important to minimize the power used in transmitting signals because the high-speed analog-to-digital converters can be one of the highest power consuming chips in a system and run at the highest temperature.
Using a parallel output bus to transmit data from an analog-to-digital converter has several disadvantages. First the parallel output is often single ended output, which is susceptible to noise and other physical effects. Additionally, the parallel output port contains a large number of lines which increases the size of the ADC package and each line must be carefully routed on the printed circuit board to avoid undesirable signal delay, jitter, and skew. To minimize the power requirement and the distance over which the parallel output port must operate, a serializer may be used to combine the parallel outputs into a serial stream. The serial data stream can be output from the serializer on differential or single ended serial lines. According to one exemplary embodiment, the serial stream can travel over differential pairs, which can be less susceptible to noise and routing considerations. Additionally, by serializing the output of an analog-to-digital converter, the total number of output lines can be reduced which can lower overall operating power. According to one exemplary embodiment, the serialized signal can operate in Low Voltage Differential Signal (LVDS) mode.
In many instances it can be desirable to separate the output from the analog-to-digital converter core (1505) and serializer (1510) from other circuitry by using an isolation capacitor (1520). The isolation capacitor is only one embodiment of several means of passing an AC signal while blocking any DC component of the signal. The DC isolation capacitor (1520) can be thought of as a pair of plates, with the first upstream plate being electrically connected to the upstream portion of the serialized output line (1535) and an adjacent but physically separate plate being connected to the downstream output line (1540). The DC isolation capacitor (1520) allows high-frequency signals to pass through it without substantial interference. However, lower frequency or DC signals are blocked by the DC isolation capacitor (1520). This protects the analog-to-digital converter core (1505) and serializer (1510) from undesirable outside influences such as eddy currents in ground loops. This improves the overall signal quality received out of the analog-to-digital converter core (1505).
When the DC isolation capacitor (1520) receives a stream of high-frequency digital data comprising a series of high-voltage and low voltage pulses representing digital “1”s and “0”s, the voltage on the upstream plate varies accordingly. The downstream plate of the capacitor senses the changes in voltage on the upstream plate and transmits the voltage pulses into the downstream line (1540). Over time, the average DC voltage of the downstream drifts from the DC offset of the upstream signal. This drift can occur when an unbalanced number of “1”s and “0”s are transmitted from the upstream serializer (1510). For example, if significantly more digital “1”s than “0”s are transmitted by the serializer (1510), the average downstream voltage may gradually diminish until the logic level appears to be a logic level “0”. Serial streams with significantly more “1”s or “0”s are unbalanced and therefore can cause errors in data received downstream line. According to one exemplary embodiment, the serializer (1510) output can be encoded such that the number of digital “1”s or “0”s are transmitted over a given time period is balanced, thereby preventing bit errors or other errors due to the isolation component in the downstream line (1540).
The packetized data is further encoded to have an equal number of “1”s and “0”s. This encoding necessitates adding extra bit times (1650). The final content shown the output streams (1640, 1650) will actually be the encoded data and therefore won't be in the same format shown in the figure for illustrative purposes. One common encoding scheme for balancing “1”s and “0”s is 8 B/10 B encoding, which requires 10 bit times to transmit 8 bits of raw input data.
In order to decode the serialized output, a number of timing signals can be generated and transmitted along with the packetized data stream. These timing signals (1615, 1620, 1630) are transmitted on individual signal pipes. The master clock signal (1615) toggles between a digital “1” and a digital “0” to time individual bits. The 8 B/10 B timing signal (1620) toggles each time an encoding packet starts or ends. The timing pipe (1630) toggles high at the beginning of each packet inside the stream. Together, these timing signals (1615, 1620, 1630) allow downstream devices to understand and decode the serialized data streams (1640, 1645). Although only two packetized data streams (1640, 1645) are shown in conjunction with the timing signals, any number of packetized data streams may be associated with the timing signals and without increasing the timing stream (1615, 1620, 1630) overhead requirement.
The packetized data streams (1640, 1645) each are comprised of three pipes which transmit each row of data within the packet. Stream 0 (1640) represents the packetized data from one analog-to-digital output (1605). Stream 1 (1645) contains the analog-to-digital output of a similar analog-to-digital converter (not shown). Each of the analog-to-digital converters requires 11 parallel output lines, resulting in a total of 22 output lines feeding into the serializer. As can be seen in
The preceding description has been presented only to illustrate and describe embodiments and examples of the principles described. This description is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit these principles to any precise form disclosed. Many modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teaching.
This application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/880,111 filed Jan. 11, 2007 entitled “Test Solutions and Methods for Difficult Case Signals Encountered in Automatic Test Equipment.” The afore mentioned application is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Number | Date | Country | |
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60880111 | Jan 2007 | US |