Product Brief
SigmaTel Inc
Audio Codec Capacitor Decoupling
Performance Comparison
Integrating Mixed-Signal Solutions
Introduction
SigmaTel has consistently provided the industry’s highest performance AC’97 audio codecs for applications in PCs,
settop boxes, DVD players, PDAs, and other audio enabled equipment. Recent improvements in the designs from
SigmaTel now offer the option of significantly reducing the size and number of external decoupling capacitors used to
filter internal voltages. Audio subsystem costs are now even lower with this option for fewer and smaller external
components. The charts below indicate the expected performance levels expected for a typical PCI sound card design.
These results can also be applied to the increasingly popular motherboard designs with AC’97 audio on-board. It
should be noted that motherboards can have additional noise sources not present on sound cards. In the case of a high
noise environment, the decoupling capacitor values can be slightly increased typical sound card values to improve
performance.
CAP2 Reduction Effect
The CAP2 input on SigmaTel codecs is used to decouple the ADC reference voltage. The standard value for CAP2 is
listed as +10uF in most SigmaTel documentation. As is apparent from the chart, values down to 0.01uF have no
appreciable effect on ADC performance.
Audio Performance vs CAP2 Value
90
88
86
84
82
ADC THD+N 0dB
80
ADC -60dB DR
78
ADC SNR
76
VREF decoupled with 1.0uF and 0.1uF
74
10pF
100pF 1000pF 0.01uF 0.1uF
CAP2 Value
1.0uF
10uF
CAP2 and VREFcap Combined Reduction Effect
The CAP2 input on SigmaTel codecs is used to decouple the ADC reference voltage, while the VREFcap decouples the
primary internal reference voltage. The standard value for CAP2 and VREFcap is listed as +10uF in most SigmaTel
documentation. As is apparent from the chart, both capacitors can be reduced to values as small as 0.01uF with only a
minor effect on ADC performance.
Audio Performance vs CAP2/VREFcap Value
90
88
86
84
82
80
ADC THD+N 0dB
78
ADC SNR
76
ADC -60dB DR
74
VREF and CAP2 decoupled with same values
72
10pF
100pF
1000pF
0.01uF
0.1uF
1.0uF
10uF
CAP2/VREFcap Value
Capacitor Comparison Product Brief
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10/06/99
2-ST002-AN-1099