The following guidelines should be followed when designing the layout:
- Decoupling capacitors should be placed as close to the VDD1/VDD2 pins as possible.
- The die attach pad (DAP) should have a low-impedance connection to the nearest GND plane. This is typically accomplished with vias connecting the surface GND plane to inner-layer GND planes. One recommended option is to place 14 vias spaced ≥1 mm apart in a seven by two grid as shown in Figure 8-8.
- When placing the FPC202 underneath an SFP or QSFP cage, on the opposite side of the PCB, as shown in Figure 8-8, take note of the SFP/QSFP keep-out areas as well as any keep-out area required for the pressfit assembly tooling.
- Pin 32 (CAPL) should have a low-impedance, low-inductance path to a 2.2-µF decoupling capacitor to GND. If space constraints force this capacitor to be placed away from the pin, then a wider metal trace (that is, 20 mil) to the capacitor, utilizing an inner layer if necessary, is recommended.
- A GND pin is provided (pin 27) to make it easy to probe GND near the FPC202, especially in applications where the opposite side of the PCB is covered by an SFP or QSFP cage and therefore inaccessible. To maximize the benefit of this probe point, connect this pin to the local GND plane (that is, to the DAP and associated GND vias) through a low-impedance trace. In addition, it may be helpful to route a short trace to a probe point for easy access.