Understanding Ferrite Beads and Applications

Steve Weir IPBLOX, LLC sweir@ipblox.com steve@teraspeed.com

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Property Rights Disclosure

PROPERTY OF IPBLOX LLC Information contained in this document is not to be reproduced in any form without permission of IPBLOX LLC. Any information in this document is proprietary and may not be used or disclosed without the express permission of IPBLOX, LLC.

CONFIDENTIAL PROPERTY OF IPBLOX LLC This document includes valuable trade secrets. Unauthorized disclosure of use of this document may violate the Uniform Trade Secrets Act.

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Ferrite Beads Dark Magic?

Ferrite beads are often employed by EMC specialists to solve noise problems.
Beads have a reputation for magically eliminating some EMC problems

Ferrite beads are also often used in high frequency analog circuits.
Frequent application is power filtering

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Why Makes Ferrite Beads Special?

Ferrites are highly permeable materials Ferrites are highly resistive
They make good, dense transformers and inductors in their linear region

Unlike other high permeability materials like iron, ferrite material has a much higher resistivity High resistivity means low eddy current losses up to high frequencies, IE they pass signals without much loss up to high frequency

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What Makes Ferrite Beads Special?

Ferrites are special due to high frequency RESISTIVE losses

Ferrites exhibit eddy current losses like any conductive material

Resistive loss at high frequency makes a good EMI trap

Conducted noise can be turned to heat where it does no harm
Does not circulate through system
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Creates resistive loss Loss increases with frequency In ferrites used for EMC this does not happen until 10s or 100s of MHz

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Limitations of Ferrites
All ferrites make EXCELLENT LINEAR INDUCTORS up to at least 1MHz, often well beyond 10MHz At high frequencies ferrites exhibit parasitic capacitance that bypasses the resistive loss.
Insertion loss falls off at 800MHz or lower Insertion loss no more than 10dB at 2GHz even for the highest frequency ferrites The actual working frequency range depends on the formulation
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Ferrite Bead Response Regions

Ferrite beads exhibit three response regions: Inductive, resistive, and capacitive

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Ferrite Bead Inductive Region

At low frequencies, ferrites make

EXCELLENT INDUCTORS!

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Ferrite Bead Resistive Region

Ferrite beads are typically only resistive over one frequency decade

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Ferrite Bead Capacitive Region

Ferrite beads become capacitive at high frequencies

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Ferrite Bead Response Regions

Useful insertion loss may be realized in all three impedance regions However, care must be taken combining ferrite beads with other components that are also reactive in either the inductive or capacitive regions The inductive region is usually the most DANGEROUS, and often overlooked
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Inductive Region Issues

At low frequencies where X >= R, a ferrite bead behaves as a high Q inductor. When building noise filters, it is important to mind the port impedances and Q. A moderate Q inductor in the form of a ferrite bead operating in its inductive region feeding a high Q ceramic bypass capacitor(s) results in high Q, ( lots of peaking )
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Example S21 Responses

The responses shown demonstrate that for any LP cut-off with a high Q capacitor in the inductive region, very pronounced peaking occurs.
Amplifies any noise in the band!
SMPS ripple Digital noise

Peaking depends on capacitor ESR vs. bead LLC, All Rights Reserved Page 13 2009, IPBLOX jwL

Almost always in passband of circuits like PLLs. High Z to output

Example S21 Responses

A cut-off in the resistive region does not peak badly (27pF in figure) It filters over a narrow range

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Example S21 Responses

A lower frequency cut-off peaks badly due to high Q of bead and capacitor

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Example S21 Responses

Peaking near the VRM switching frequency can be very bad! Amplifying source noise > 10:1 is probably not what we want from a filter!

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The Need for Damping

A low performance filter may be constructed using a ferrite bead and a small capacitance ( 27pF in the example ) Rule of thumb: Unperforated 4mil planes FR4 material 225pF / sq in
The capacitance may be planar, discrete or a combination

Undamped, a plane cavity would have to be < 0.12 sq to avoid peaking with a MPZ1608S221A bead
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Damping Options
Damping can be achieved by a number of means. The most common:
Adding series resistance Adding shunt resistance Adding series resistor to the capacitor Adding a damped dominant pole

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Damping Series Resistor S21

Preserves mid and HF loss Resistor may need to dissipate a lot of power Resistor may result in unacceptable DC voltage drop

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Damping w/ Shunt R
Generally impractical as low value R draws multiple amperes for modest impedances

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Damping w/ Cap w/ Series R

Variation of shunt R Bypass cap acts as DC block to resistor Solves peaking Several disadvantages
Reduced mid band loss from resistance Reduced HF loss from resistance & ESL

Best used w/ big cap value allowing small R value

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Damping w/ Dominant Pole

Further refinement of shunt scheme, uses a dominant pole RC shunt for damping + HF cap for high insertion loss Low dissipation Good mid and HF loss But, Requires more parts
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Damping w/ Capacitor Selection

Can damp w/ a capacitor with C and ESR such that:

Obviates need for external resistor Requires lower Q cap than MLCC

ESR*C >= 1.4LBEAD

Larger cap values drop FCUTOFF & Z22

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Generally Al electrolytic or tantalum with high ESL Require MLCC(s) to get low ESL for HF filtering

Improves SMPS rejection

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Load-side Impedance, Z22

S21 determines rejection of outside noise Load current, port 2, impinges noise voltage on the network loadside impedance, Z22 Bypass capacitor / plane / interconnect inductance drive Z22
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How Beads Impact Z22

Beads isolate power nodes into nets that are often routed as traces by necessity
Example: Virtex 4 FX series devices power application notes require up to 80 power nodes EACH NODE SEPARATELY isolated with a ferrite 10 instances each of 8 power supplies:
AVCCAUXMGT AVCCAUXRXA AVCCAUXRXB AVCCAUXTX VTRXA VTRXB VTTXA VTTXB

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Example Virtex4 FX

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Interpreting Data Sheets

Ferrite bead data sheets usually present data in one of two forms:
Z, X, R plots Scattering parameters based on 50 ohm ports

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Interpreting Data Sheet: Z, X, R Plots

Z, X, R plots are usually presented in linear impedance magnitude versus logarithmic frequency. For simple single parallel LRC model,
L 1.41*XPEAK / (2**FXPEAK ) R ZPEAK

This model reasonably accurate in inductive and resistive regions

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Interpreting Data Sheet S Params

S parameters assume 50 ohm ports. 50 ohm source and load ports often misinterpreted for power delivery
Hides peaking that occurs in actual applications Real source port impedance usually very low Real load port impedance may be almost any value
Effective resistance often quite high >> 50 ohms

SPICE based lumped equivalent extraction is most accurate Always evaluate with appropriate external circuit model
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Ferrite Bead Design Checklist

How much S21 insertion loss do I need versus frequency?

What Z22 requirements does my load have?

Trace instead of plane / puddle?

Can I meet this with placement and/or etch manipulation Is a ferrite bead the right tool for the job?

Will isolating a voltage node(s) result in too much PCB inductance?

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Ferrite Bead Design Checklist, Contd

What low frequency resistance can I tolerate? Control peaking at FCUTOFF with proper network design Insure filter is not defeated by placement / layout

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Summary
Ferrite beads may be used to isolate circuits
Reduced noise in analog power feeds
Ultra-quiet clock power, reduces jitter Quiet PLL power, reduces jitter Quiet A/D, D/A power, improves S/N

Reduced output / input feedback in high frequency circuits

Can prevent oscillations

Reduced EMI conducted into main power rails Reduced susceptibility to ESD and EFT

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Summary
Both S21 and Z22 requirements must be considered in design

At HF it is the load side bypass cap network doing the noise suppression work Low inductance on load side critical for high frequency circuits
Use good layout technique & right choice of parts

Ferrite beads are linear inductors at LF

Dominant pole method provides best overall response, but at highest cost and most parts
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Some means of damping is required to prevent transferring MORE NOISE near filter cut-off than w/o the ferrite

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