November 18, 2009 -- Television and cinema have entered the digital age. Video pictures are used to transport at standard definition rate (270 Mb/s), upgraded to high definition rate (1.485Gbps), and are now migrating to 3Gbps. The migration to higher speeds enables higher resolution images for entertainment, but it also presents challenges to hardware engineers and physical layout designers. Many video systems are implemented with feature-rich FPGA and multi-rate SDI integrated circuits that support high performance professional video transport over long distances. FPGAs demand high density routing with fine trace width while high-speed analog SDI routing demands impedance matching and signal fidelity.
This article outlines the layout challenges facing hardware engineers and provides recommendations for dealing with these challenges.
By Tsun-Kit Chin. (Chin is with National Semiconductor Corp.)
This brief introduction has been excerpted from the original copyrighted article.
