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Data

Converters Processing & DSP & Linear

Embedded RF

& Communications

Amplifiers

Power/Supervisory/Hot-Swap

MEMs

Technology

System Partitioning Considerations for Mixedsignal Front-ends

The World Leader in High-Performance Signal Processing Solutions 2 - ADI Confidential 2003 -

System Partitioning Matters

System

Partitioning refers to the way in which functions are allocated across components in your system design The Way Your System is Partitioned has a big impact on the all your design goals, it affects:
Performance Cost

Time
Risk
3

to Market

- ADI Confidential 2003 -

System Partitioning Options

Single IC, system-on-a-chip
High development cost, Expensive, Inflexible, performance tradeoffs
Analog

Digital

Custom Digital and Analog ASICs

High Performance, Can us Smart Partitioning philosophy, Large upfront investment

Digital

Analog ASIC

DAC

Digital

Digital ASIC with Discrete mixed signal ICs

High performance, Flexible, May not meet size requirements in some applications

ADC

PGA

LPF

Digital ASIC with MxFE

High performance, Flexible, Low Cost, Highly Integrated, No Investment, No Risk, Available Now
4 - ADI Confidential 2003 -

Digital

MxFE

Fab process geometry effects on cost

Digital Circuitry
100

Digital: per function cost decreases because circuit sizes shrink faster than silicon prices increase.

80
Die Cost

60 40 20 0 .6u .35u .25u .18u .13u CMOS Fab Process Analog Circuitry

Analog: per function cost/power increases softer scaling function, and penalty from shrinking supply voltages

100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 .6u .35u .25u .18u .13u CMOS Fab Process

- ADI Confidential 2003 -

Die Cost

System on a Chip Integration Path

Digital Analog Digital 0.18

Analog Analog Digital 0.13

0.35

0.35

Low-cost Solution
6 - ADI Confidential 2003 -

Development Costs Are Skyrocketing

$1,600 $1,400 $1,200
($000'S)

Mask costs go up as geometries go down

$1,000 $800 $600 $400 $200 $0

0.35 CMOS 0.25 CMOS 0.18 CMOS 0.13 CMOS 0.09 CMOS

$35,000 $70,000 $250,000 $510,000 $1,500,000

.60m
Source: Analog Devices

.35m

.25m

.18m

.13m

.09m

Process Technology

Amortized
10

mask cost on 0.13 design

Million units sold $0.05/unit IF the design is correct the first time

- ADI Confidential 2003 -

The Mask set isnt the Only Investment

Testing 100% digital circuitry uses low cost, readily available memory/logic testers
SOCs Require Expensive and Complicated Testers Mixed signal testers are more expensive

Dedicated analog tester - $400K Dedicated digital tester - $1250K Mixed-signal tester - $2000K

Test time ~$100/hour/$M tester cost

Test solution can take several months to develop Significant IP necessary to get good test coverage

Longer test times are required to ensure full test coverage

Built-In Self Test (BIST) is common in digital circuitry, but mixedsignal is far behind in BIST

- ADI Confidential 2003 -

Developing Custom ASICs is a big Investment with big Risk

Digital

ASICs can make sense in many applications, but adding analog and mixed signal technology adds to the risk. First pass success is common for digital ICs First pass success rates for system on chip ASICs are below 50% in many cases, this means several revisions are required Each revision increases cost and time to market
9 - ADI Confidential 2003 -

System on a Chip ASICs

Good for very high volume, mature, specific function, standards based product that are not differentiated by features or performance
(-)
High Investment for new designs High Unit Cost if volumes are not large

(+)
Can be cost effective for very high volume Can require less board area than some multiple chip solutions Off the shelf SOCs are available for some standards based applications

High Risk to develop, there are no simulation tools for mixed signal design, first pass success in a SOC ASIC is rare.

Performance tradeoffs, mixed signal performance is compromised in SOC ASICs

Inflexible best for mature, standards-based applications where volumes are large, designs are unlikely to change, and there is little opportunity for performance based differentiation 10

Some applications dont benefit from increased analog performance

Some standards based products may not require flexibility

- ADI Confidential 2003 -

Cable Modem Application

Cable Modem SOC ASIC
CTRL

Interpolator

IQ DAC MOD

LPF

AD8322 M A C Digital Physical Layer

DAC

RF Front End

ADC

11

- ADI Confidential 2003 -

Not All High Volume Applications are SOCs

LAN PHY HV, ESD Audio CODEC 0.35u 3V, 5V LAN MAC 0.18u, 1.8V USB PHY 0.6u, ESD RS232 PHY 30V BiCMOS Power Mgmt 0.6u BiCMOS, 12V

CPU 0.13, 1.25V Clock 0.35u, 3V Memory Controller Hub 0.13, 1.5V Supervisor 0.35u, 3V Memory DRAM Process Super I/O 0.35u, 5V I/O Controller Hub 0.35u, 1.8V, 3V, & 5V

Firmware Hub 0.35u, 3V

12

- ADI Confidential 2003 -

Smart Partitioning

- What is it?

Smart Partitioning is a maximum integration approach It can mean System Integration, Not Necessarily Silicon Integration It is not simply separating analog and digital functions Smart Partitioning involves integrating analog functions with the right amount of digital circuitry to minimize size, power, and cost and maximize performance

Partitions the system so that each function can be realized on the highest performance technology for that function Partitions across functional lines when analog voltages must be high

13

- ADI Confidential 2003 -

Discrete Partitioning
Digital ASIC with Discrete mixed signal ICs
DAC

Digital
ADC
PGA

LPF

Highest

performance and greatest flexibility Most designs start this way Leading edge performance applications stay this way Some applications may require more integration to meet size constraints
14 - ADI Confidential 2003 -

Discrete Partitioning Example - Cellular Base Station

Multimode/Multicarrier IF Sampling Receiver

Every dB counts, these applications demand leading edge performance

15 - ADI Confidential 2003 -

Discrete Chip Solutions

Good for low volume, high-performance products
(-)
Can require more board space than more integrated solutions May not be cost optimized in high volume applications when multiple ICs are required

(+)
Highest Performance the very highest performance is achieved with discrete ICs Require no NRE Discrete converters are standard, off the shelf components Flexible discrete ICs provide the most flexibility Quick to market

16

- ADI Confidential 2003 -

Smart Partitioning with a Custom Mixed Signal ASIC

Analog ASIC

Digital

Custom Digital and Analog ASICs

Smart

Partitioning can be applied with a custom mixed signal ASIC Best suited for high volume, high performance, mature, standards based applications Mixed Signal ASICs can have very high performance Mixed Signal ASICs can be less risky than SOC ASICs, but are still riskier than digital ASICs Require extensive mixed signal design expertise
- ADI Confidential 2003 -

17

ADI ADSL Chipset 2 ASIC Smart Partitioning

High Speed ADC and DAC, Integrated Line Dirver
DSP Program/Data Memory Digital Timing Recovery DMT Engine & FFT block

AFIC I/F

AD6488
AFE
ADSL UTP Integrated voltage requlators and receive path PGA reduce external components and cost

2189 DSP
USB 2.0 USB core & 8051 Controller

Tone Detector UTOPIA FIFO

3.3 Volts Framer Interleave RAM 1.8 Volts

Address (16)

5.0 Volts
Data (8)

GPIO

Xtal

High performance Eagle ADSL Digital ASIC

18

- ADI Confidential 2003 -

Custom 2-Chip ASICs

Good for high volume, standards based products where performance Is critical
(-)and
High Investment for new designs High Unit Cost if volumes are not large Extensive analog and mixed signal expertise required to develop Can be very high performance, but performance may still not be as good as discrete converters Fairly Inflexible best for mature, standardsbased applications where volumes are large and designs are unlikely to change.

(+)
Can be cost effective for very high volume Can be space efficient Off the shelf solutions can be cost effective in a good choice High performance, used in high volume applications that require better performance than SOCs can deliver Low flexibility, but offers more flexibility than SOCs. Analog and digital chips can be changed separately

19

- ADI Confidential 2003 -

Smart Partitioning with MxFEs

Digital IC with MxFE
MxFE Digital

MxFEs are flexible standard product ASSPs (application specific standard products) that allow you to use a flexible multifunction standard product approach for your design. MxFEs Are: High performance Flexible Low Cost Highly Integrated Investment free No risk Available Now

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- ADI Confidential 2003 -

What Are MxFEs?

Highly Integrated, Flexible, Mixed Signal ICs
Integrated filter and gain blocks reduce external components Digital processing minimizes external filtering and keeps bus speeds down reducing power and system noise

All Digital IC = Reduced design risk, optimized process geometry, Lowest Cost

1X

PGA

ADC ADC

Digital Processing

DATA MUX & LATCH

Flexible I/O Programmable Filter, gain and configuration options

1X

PGA

Auxiliary converters for peripheral functions

AUX DAC AUX DAC AUX DAC

SPI REGISTERS

AUX ADC

CLOCK DISTRIBUTION

DLL

Offset correction or High Current Output Drivers Included onchip

AUX ADC

Integrated Clock Functions

Broadband Digital ASIC Or DSP

PGA

DAC DAC

Digital Processing

LATCH & DEMUX

PGA

Multiple ADCs and DACs on a single IC

Integrated digital processing minimizes external mixers, oscillators and filtering, keeps bus speeds low

Optimized, flexible Interface keeps pin count down

21

- ADI Confidential 2003 -

Set Top Box - AD9873/77/78/79

Set Top Box ASIC or DSP
CTRL

FEC Coder

QAM
Mapping Tx Filter Burst Gen. Out-Of -Band QPSK-Demod

Interpolator

IQ DAC MOD ADC ADC

LPF

Diplexer

M A C
FEC Decoder

AD8323

Coax Cable
T U N E R T U N E R

QAM Demod

AD9873/77/79

DAC

ADC
DAC

BPF

RISC NTSC / PAL Decoder CTRL MPEG-2 Decoder USB/

Ethernet

ADC
Clamp

BPF

Video Encoder Audio/Video CODEC

AD18xx ADV71xx - ADI Confidential 2003 -

22

Mixed Signal Integration Example Power line Modem Front End

Receive path gain stages with switched attenuation for gain control High Speed ADC Multi-pole filter

ADC

High Speed DAC

DAC

Transmit/ Receive switch circuitry Output Driver Circuitry 23 - ADI Confidential 2003 -

Smart Partitioning - MxFE Power Line Networking Solution

Flexible Interface supports Full or Half Duplex Operation
PWR-DN

-Flexible Output - High Power Current out, or Direct DAC Output - Integrated Tx / Rx switch eliminates external components

+5V

Integrated 23dBm Peak Power Voltage Output Driver cuts driver cost - requires <$.04 in external components

AD9865/66
K x Interpolation LPF/BPF
10/12

TXEN/ SYNC TX CLK

TxDAC

Fast ON/OFF Facilitates

ADIO [11:6] Tx[5:0]

CLOCK GEN
ADIO [11:6] Rx[5:0]

Efficient Power Management in Half Duplex Mode (<170mA) High performance ADC and DAC requirements

10/12
RXEN/SYNC

ADC

PGA

LPF

LPF

RXCLK 3 SPORT

REGISTER CONTROL

-12-48 dB Programmable Gain

24

eliminates expensive external PGAs

True Differential Input for Maximum Noise and Distortion Performance - ADI Confidential 2003 -

Integrated Low pass filter with programmable cutoff reduces external filter components

MxFE HPNA Solution

AFETX[5:0] AFETXSY

RXP
RXN

AFERX[5:0] AFERXSY

Hybrid and Filter

Host

TXP TXN

AD9865
REFADJ OSCO OSCI

AFERXCK AFETXQ# AFESCS# AFESCK AFESD

HPNA ASIC

REFIO

REFB

EECK

REFT

64MHz

EEPROM

25

- ADI Confidential 2003 -

EED

AD9860 AD9863: Broadband Wireless

Antenna

Linear Circuitry
MxFE
PLL

Digital Modem
PHY
Beam Former / Equalizer OFDM QAMDecoder Error Correction

MAC
MAC RISCProcessor

RF / IF
426 MHz

ADC

Filter

FFT

ADC

Gain Control
DAC 330 MHz DAC

Timing Recovery OFDM QAMCoder

MAC Hardware

Filter

IFFT

Forward Error Correction

Ethernet

RF / IF up- / down converts Baseband Signal to / from RF frequencies AD9860/62 can do IF sampling

AD9860 - 63 Mixed Signal Front End ADCs, DACs Signal Conditioning

Modulation: MxFEs support any modulation scheme QAM OFDM WCDMA

Diversity Receive: Dual ADC/DAC MxFEs support Diversity Architectures

Any Digital Back End, DSP or ASIC

26

- ADI Confidential 2003 -

MxFEs Function/Application Matrix

Any Broadband Modem
Digital ASIC
CTRL

M A C

Digital Physical Layer

InterIQ DAC polator MOD ADC ADC

AD9860,62,73,75, 76,77,79
DAC

LPF

Any Front End

ADC

Product Applications by function

Function Multiple Rx, Sngle Tx Single Rx, Single Tx Dual TX, Dual Rx Rx Strip Tx Strip Products AD9877, 78, 79 AD9865,66, 75, 76, AD9975 AD9860, 62, 61, 63 AD9870, 74 AD9856, 57 Cable XXX X X X XXX Served Markets Wireless Home Networking Broadband Access XX XX XX X XXX XXX XXX X XX XXX X X X XX

27

- ADI Confidential 2003 -

MxFE Solution
Good for high volume, standards based products where good performance, low development cost, and low risk is needed.
(-)
Performance is not as good as the highest performance discrete solutions

(+)
Low cost -MxFEs are designed to be a low cost solution, take advantage of the scale economy of high volume applications with flexible multimarket MxFEs for new applications Require less board area than discrete converter solutions No NRE MxFEs provide an ASIC like level of integration without the investment. No development risk MxFEs are off the shelf products Time to market MxFEs are available now and flexible enough to meet a wide range of applications

28

- ADI Confidential 2003 -

MxFEs Can Help You

Use

Smart Partitioning

Reduce

System Design Optimize die yield and cost Minimize test cost Bring new technology to market quickly Take advantage of Scale economy in emerging market applications Advance analog and digital technology independently Maintain flexibility

29

- ADI Confidential 2003 -

Partitioning Decision Matrix

Options Performance IC dev Cost Very high Time to Market Long Flexibility Board Space Smallest Risk

Custom System on Chip ASIC Custom mixed Signal ASIC Digital ASIC with discrete mixed signal MxFE

Compromise

Inflexible

Very high High

High

Very high

Long

Limited Flexibility

Small

Very High

None

Short

Highest

Largest

None

High

None

Short

High

Small

None

30

- ADI Confidential 2003 -

Think Smart Partitioning to Improve

Performance Cost Time Risk

to Market

31

- ADI Confidential 2003 -

Data

Converters Processing & DSP & Linear

Embedded RF

& Communications

Amplifiers

Solutions

Power/Supervisory/Hot-Swap

MEMs

Technology

Analog-to-Digital Converters Digital-to-Analog Converters Digital Up/Down Converters Direct Digital Synthesis Mixed Signal Front-ends (MxFE) Thermal and System Management Voltage-to-Frequency Converters

Audio Converters Digital Isolators Display Electronics MicroConverters References Energy Measurement

The World Leader in High-Performance Signal Processing Solutions - ADI Confidential 2003 -

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