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Coupling Capacitor Values
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AC Coupling Capacitor
Values
09/26/2018 | 09:08 pm

%20ratio%C2%A0of%20Cx%20to%20100%20ohms%2C%20which%20will%20reduce%20the%20pk-

AC Coupling, Capacitive Reactance and Clock

Howell Mitchell Signals
(/community/profile.ht
ml/home/users/0/041d Clock signals are usually AC coupled because AC
- coupling eliminates needing to consider the DC
2WCTx8lZejsBaSU/pr
common mode voltages of the driver and receiver. 
ofile)
Employee The vast majority of clock signals have a constant 50%
duty cycle, which makes AC coupling easy and
straightforward.  However, when selecting a value  for
the AC coupling cap, the frequency of the clock and the
impedance being driven need to be taken into
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 p g
3/11/2019 AC Coupling Capacitor Values
consideration.

For a cap value of C, the capacitive reactance Cx at a

clock frequency of F is 1 / (2 * pi * F * C).  For a 0.1 uF
cap, the capacitve reactance at 10 MHz is

1 / (2 * pi * 10 MHz * 0.1 uF) = ~0.16 ohms

Looking at the attached termination schematic, Cx

should be small compared to the termination
resistance and the transmission line impedance of 50
ohms.  A reasonable “rule of thumb” is to be sure that
Cx < 5 ohms, which  is 10% of 50 ohms.

If F were 1 MHz, Cx for a 0.1 uF cap would be 1.6 ohms,

which would be OK.

However, if F were 100 kHz Cx would be 16 ohms,

which is above 5 ohms and will be a problem unless
the value of C is increased.  The speci c problem is
that the input clock will be attenuated by the ratio of
Cx to 100 ohms, which will reduce the pk-pk swing of
the input clock.

A note of caution:  The above discussion refers only to

the fundamental of the clock input.  Since the clock
input is assumed to be a square wave, there will be
considerable spectral content at the odd harmonics. 
Because these harmonics are all higher in frequency,
they will be attenuated more than the fundamental. 
With severely attenuated odd harmonics, the rise/fall
time of the clock signal will be signi cantly reduced,
which will cause an increase in jitter at the input of the
receiver.  Unless the receiver provides jitter
attenuation, the AC coupling cap should have an even
lower Cx value at the frequency of operation.  It is for
this reason that the clock outputs are more sensitive
to high Cx values than the clock inputs of a jitter
attenuator.

Topics: Timing, Knowledge Base Articles

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3/11/2019 AC Coupling Capacitor Values

AC coupling.png
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