AN1006
Designing with 10K and 100K
ECL / PECL Devices
HIGH-PERFORMANCE PRODUCTS
10K/100K ECL/PECL Devices
Designing with 10K and 100K ECL / PECL Devices
100K ECL Driving 10K ECL
The basic differences between 10K and 100K de-
vices are circuit stability and performance with varia-
tion in supply voltage and ambient temperature.
100K ECL parts are both temperature and voltage
compensated and 10K ECL parts are only voltage
compensated.
-0.9
-1.0
-1.1
100K V
OH
(min)
HIGH STATE MARGINS
10K
100K
(min)
V
K
0
1
IH
-1.2
-1.3
-1.4
ECL is used to obtain the required circuit speed and
provide the circuit features necessary to optimize
high-speed system design. The problem caused by
mixing 10K ECL and 100K ECL logics is illustrated
in Figures 1 & 2.
(max)
10K V
OL
-1.5
-1.6
LOW STATE MARGINS
100K 10K
100K V (max)
OL
-1.7
70
20
30
80
0
10
60
40
50
o
T
- AMBIENT TEMPERATURE ( C)
A
Figure 2
10K output levels and input threshold vary with tem-
perature, whereas 100K output levels and input
threshold remain essentially constant over supply
voltage and temperature change. This means that
the noise margins vary with the temperature, even
if the temperatures of the driving and receiving cir-
cuits track. Perhaps the worse-case is shown in
Figure 2, which illustrates 100K driving 10K. At TA
= 75°C, the high margins are seen to be less than
100 mV. Clearly this would not represent accept-
able DC margins in any real systems.
If the use of 10K ECL in a 100K system is unavoid-
able, it is recommended that all interfacing be done
differentially. This is illustrated in Figure 3, which is
applicable in either direction. Also if the operating
ambient temperature for all the ECL devices is un-
der control, this type of connection is allowed. For
ECL/PECL output termination techniques refer to
application note AN1003.
10K ECL Driving 100K ECL
-0.9
in)
(m
V
10K
OH
-1.0
-1.1
HIGH STATE MARGINS
10K 100K
100K V (min)
IH
-1.2
-1.3
-1.4
Differential Line Receiver
-2V -2V
LOW STATE MARGINS
10K 100K
100K V (max)
IL
Interfacing 10K and 100K
-1.5
-1.6
Figure 3
(max)
V
10K
OL
-1.7
70
20
30
80
0
10
60
40
50
o
T
- AMBIENT TEMPERATURE ( C)
A
Figure 1
www.semtech.com
Revision 1/November 14, 2001
1