9.2.2.6 Cables and Connectors, General Comments

When choosing cable and connectors for LVDS, it is important to use controlled impedance media. The cables and connectors used should have a matched differential impedance of about 100 Ω. They should not introduce major impedance discontinuities.

Balanced cables (like twisted-pair cables, for example) are usually better than unbalanced cables (like ribbon cables, simple coax) for noise reduction and signal quality. Balanced cables tend to generate less EMI due to field canceling effects and also tend to pick up electromagnetic radiation and common-mode (not differential mode) noise, which the receiver will reject.

For cable distances < 0.5M, most cables can work effectively. For distances 0.5M ≤ d ≤ 10M, TI recommends using CAT 3 (category 3) twisted-pair cables which are readily available and relatively inexpensive.