Buffer/repeaters boost backplane integrity

National Semiconductor has added two new low-power, high-performance buffer/repeaters to its industry-leading portfolio of LVDS products.

National Semiconductor has added two new low-power, high-performance buffer/repeaters to its industry-leading portfolio of LVDS (low-voltage differential signalling) products.

National's DS90LV004 and SCAN90004 1.5Gbit/s, four-channel buffers are the first to include configurable output pre-emphasis, hot-plug protection and 15kV of electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection.

The devices boost the signal integrity of field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and application specific integrated circuits (ASIC) across backplanes and cables in telecomms, datacomms, industrial, medical, automotive and office imaging applications.

For designers who want to implement system-level test, the SCAN90004 features IEEE1149.6 (JTAG) testability.

"The DS90LV004 and SCAN90004 dramatically improve the performance of a wide variety of designs driving high-speed signals", said Thomas Wirschem, Product Marketing Manager Interface Division Europe.

"In FPGA- and ASIC-based designs, for example, these buffers minimise simultaneous switching noise issues, improve ESD protection, and deliver higher-speed and longer-reach signals over lower-cost cables and backplanes".

The four-channel DS90LV004 drives up to four LVDS clock and/or data channels over common backplanes or simple cable configurations.

The wide differential input range easily interfaces to LVDS, low voltage positive emitter-coupled logic (LVPECL) or current mode logic (CML) input levels and the output levels are fully LVDS compliant.

The DS90LV004 operates at datarates up to 1.5Gbit/s and includes configurable output pre-emphasis that allows the designer to "overdrive" the outputs to compensate for a lossy interconnect.

The DS90LV004 also features the industry's highest 15kV of ESD protection for maximum isolation of expensive FPGAs, ASICs and other onboard components.

In power-sensitive applications, the power-down mode is useful in minimising power consumption when all four channels of a single device are not active, as in redundancy applications.

The SCAN90004 has the same features as the DS90LV004, and also includes IEEE1149.1 and 1149.6 (JTAG) testability to verify high-speed differential connections in the system.

These JTAG-accessible features extend the capability of an existing system or board-level JTAG bus to high-speed mixed-signal environments.

The DS90LV004 and SCAN90004 are available now in 48-pin TQFPs.

In 1000-unit quantities, the DS90LV004 is priced at $4.95 and the SCAN90004 with JTAG is priced at $5.20.

An evaluation board and lead-free package options are also available.

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