Advanced COMMUNICATIONS Products
EFFICIENT FIBER SOLUTIONS
Application Note AN-ACS-2
Rev 1.1 April 9, 1999
Crystals and Padding Capacitors
for ACS4050, ACS4060
Crystal Selection
The following specifications need to be used for crystals suitable for ACS4050 and ACS4060:
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Frequency
Calibration tolerance
Temperature tolerance
Load capacitance
Other specifications such as package should be considered by the user in the context of the specific application.
Frequency
The data sheets for ACS4050 and ACS4060 give full information of crystal frequencies required. Most E1
applications use 32.768MHz and most T1 applications use 30.880MHz. It is important that this is the fundamental
frequency of the crystal.
Calibration Tolerance
This is the allowed error of the crystal from the specified frequency at a fixed temperature, usually 25°C. For this
application the tolerance should not exceed ±25 ppm.
Temperature Tolerance
This is the allowed change in frequency of the crystal over the temperature range of the crystal. For this application
the tolerance should not exceed ±25 ppm. Acapella/Semtech usually specifies crystals for the temperature range -40°C to
+85°C, although other ranges are available.
Note, the combined calibration and temperature tolerances give an allowed variation of ±50 ppm from the specified
frequency, over the complete temperature range.
Load Capacitance
For the ACS4050 and ACS4060, the crystal requires a load capacitance. Typically crystals have standard loads of
15pF, 20pF and 30pF.
Any of these values can be used, or any intermediate value, but Acapella/Semtech recommends that values close to
30pF, or greater, are not used – as this could result in overloading the internal oscillator of the IC.
Padding Capacitor Selection
As can be seen in the data sheets for the ACS4050 and ACS4060, the crystal is connected to the IC along with two
padding capacitors. These capacitors are connected one from each side of the crystal to ground. The capacitors should be
equal value, and the total capacitance on each side of the crystal should be twice the crystal load capacitance.
When determining the padding capacitor value, allowance must be made for internal IC capacitance, and any stray
capacitance from leads and track on the PCB.
The following values are given as a guide. The user should determine whether these values are correct in the specific
application.
Crystal load capacitance
Capacitor values
Expected change from
required frequency
-20ppm
15pF
20pF
30pF
22pF
27pF
47pF
+20ppm
+15ppm
In very rough figures, an increase of 1pF in the capacitor values gives a decrease of 10ppm in the frequency –
however, only use this as a guide.
©Semtech Corp. 1999
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