Chipset boosts the reach of copper cable to 400m

A versatile cable-extender BiCMOS chipset boosts the reach of 0.15 to 1.5Gbit/s LVDS, LVPECL, and CML signals up to 400m of copper cable with only 360mW power consumption.

National Semiconductor has introduced a versatile cable-extender chipset that boosts the reach of 0.15 to 1.5Gbit/s LVDS, LVPECL, and CML signals to 400m of copper cable with only 360mW power consumption.

National built this chipset with its proprietary silicon-germanium (SiGe) BiCMOS-8 process technology, which provides high performance-to-power ratios for high-speed interface devices.

National's DS15BA101 and DS15EA101 cable-extender chipset extends serial data streams from serialiser/deserialiser (SerDes) and field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) over CAT5 and coaxial cable at half the cost of optical fiber solutions.

Previously, LVDS/LVPECL/CML signals were limited to less than 20m of cable.

Engineers have been seeking an easy way to bridge longer distances over low-cost copper cables and the flexibility to easily extend that reach for remote cameras and displays, remote radio head (RRH) base stations, high-speed test equipment, industrial machine vision systems, and many other industrial- grade applications.

The DriveCable002EVK reference design has everything engineers need, including evaluation system, schematic, and printed circuit board (PCB) layout Gerber files, to quickly and easily evaluate and integrate the cable extender chipset into their design.

It plugs directly into a designer's existing system and supports CAT5/5e/6/7 100Ohm twisted-pair cables up to 100m and 50Ohm coaxial cables up to 400m.

The DS15BA101 differential buffer is an adjustable cable driver offered in a space-saving 3 x 3 mm 8-pin LLP package.

The device is powered from a single 3.3V supply and consumes 150mW (typical) at 1.5Gbit/s.

The DS15BA101 operates over the full -40 to 85C industrial temperature range.

In addition to being used with the DS15EA101 adaptive equaliser as a cable extension chipset, the DS15BA101 cable driver can also be used standalone for level translation between LVDS/CML/LVPECL and CML or LVPECL.

With no packet formatting, training, or comma characters required, the chipset automatically adapts to different cable types, cable lengths, data rates, and data formats without external programming, providing an easy-to-use alternative to fiber and Ethernet solutions.

The DS15EA101 is an adaptive equaliser offered in a 4 x 4 mm 16-pin LLP package.

It has been optimised for equalising data transmitted over copper cables and operates over a wide -40 to 85C temperature range from 150Mbit/s to 1.5 Gbit/s.

The device automatically adapts to equalise any cable length from zero meters to distances with attenuation up to 35dB at 750MHz.

The DS15EA101 allows either single-ended or differential input drive, enabling equalisation of coaxial cables and twisted pair cables.

Additional features include a loss of signal (LOS) output and an output enable which, when tied together, disable the output when no signal is present.

The DS15EA101 is powered from a single 3.3V supply and consumes 210 mW (typical) at 1.5Gbit/s.

National's cable extender chipset and DriveCable002EVK reference design are available now.

In 1,000-unit quantities, the DS15BA101 is priced at US $4.00, and the DS15EA101 is $8.75.

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