Board Layout Challenges in Serial Digital Interface

Television and cinema have entered the digital age. Video pictures are used to transport at standard-definition rate (270 Mb/s), upgraded to high-definition rate (1.485 Gb/s), and are now migrating to the 3 Gb/s rate. The migration to higher speeds enables higher-resolution images for entertainment, but it also presents challenges to hardware engineers and physical layout designers. National offers a family of multi-rate SDI-integrated circuits that supports high-performance professional video transport over long distances. Careful high-speed board designs should be used in order to maintain the superb signal quality offered by these integrated circuits. The Society of Motion Pictures and Television Engineers (SMPTE) standards that specify the Serial Digital Interface (SDI) have defined requirements and challenges for SDI designs. This article outlines the layout challenges facing hardware engineers and provides recommendations for dealing with these challenges.