10.1 PCB Layout Guidelines
The following guidelines are recommended for designing the board layout for the LMH1226:
- Choose a suitable board stack-up that supports 100-Ω differential trace routing on the board's top layer. This is typically done with a Layer 2 ground plane reference for the 100-Ω differential traces.
- Place anti-pad (ground relief) on the power and ground planes directly under the 4.7-µF AC coupling capacitor and IC landing pads to minimize parasitic capacitance. The size of the anti-pad depends on the board stack-up and can be determined by a 3-dimension electromagnetic simulation tool.
- Keep trace length within 1-2 inches between the SFP module and IN1±. This minimizes insertion loss and return loss.
- Use coupled differential traces with 100-Ω impedance for signal routing to IN1±, OUT0± and OUT1±. They are usually 5-8 mil trace width reference to a ground plane at Layer 2.
- The exposed pad EP of the package should be connected to the ground plane through an array of vias. These vias are solder-masked to avoid solder flowing into the plated-through holes during the board manufacturing process.
- Connect each supply pin (VDD_CDR, VIN, VDDIO, VDD_LDO) to the power or ground planes with a short via. The via is usually placed tangent to the supply pins' landing pads with the shortest trace possible.
- Power supply bypass capacitors should be placed close to the supply pins. They are commonly placed at the bottom layer and share the ground of the EP.