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EMC Testing of Copper Cables for High Speed Data Transmission

Dan Harres
(314) 233-3302 daniel.n.harres@boeing.com

General Test Info

Goals and Objectives

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Results provide a basis for deciding when communication media alternatives, such as fiber optics, are appropriate Goal is to determine which, if any, copper cables could be used at these rates, given the difficult EMI environment

General Test Info

Why Test Cables?

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High-speed networks in modern tactical aircraft require data rates as high as 1 gigabit per second - 3 orders of magnitude higher than 1553 Examples: AESA, AMCD, TAMMAC, etc. Earlier testing in 1995 indicated that single-braided-shield cables were inadequate at these data rates Provide near term programs with useful building blocks to solve their problems Reduce risk Lower cost

General Test Info

Test Approach

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These tests were performed using an entire prototype link (as close to manufactured unit as possible including personnel), rather than testing individual components Test setup includes ECL driver, ECL receiver amp, transformers at both transmit and receive ends, and equalizer at receiver. Only cables and connectors were tested inside EMC chamber Tests performed using valid Fibre Channel data sequences Synchronization provided by Bit Error Rate test equipment

General Test Info

Cable Test Configuration

MIL-C-38999 Plug s

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6'

15 '

15 '

15 '

15 '

6 '

DB9 Connector

MIL-C-38999 Receptacles

DB9 Connector

Cable assemblies were all built 72 feet long in four 15-foot sections and two 6 foot sections with five bulkhead connectors and DB9 connectors at each end of assembly

Fibre Channels Spectral Shaping

General Test Info

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Fibre Channels 8B10B encoding shapes the transmitted spectrum, eliminating low-frequency content and making transformer-coupled transmission possible Such spectral shaping also guarantees a higher density of state transitions, improving synchronization performance The price paid for these desirable attributes is a reduction in efficiency over straight NRZ transmission - a 1 Gigabaud link transmits 800 million bits of information per second

General Test Info Cable Assembly In Test Chamber

These connections will be permanent.
HP83480A DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS ANALYZER HP83483A MODULE HP71603B ERROR PERFORMANCE ANALYZER

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R I U

HP71604B PATTERN GENERATOR

T I U

INSTRUMENTATION ACCESS DUCT ACCESS PANEL

D38999/20 FLANGED RECEPTACLE

SCREEN ROOM

D38999/26 PLUG

D-TYPE RECEPTACLE (SMA OR TRIAX FOR SOME CONFIGURATIONS) D-TYPE PLUG (SMA OR TRIAX FOR SOME CONFIGURATIONS)

ANECHOIC CHAMBER

15

15 INSTRUMENTATION ACCESS DUCT

CONNECTOR MOUNTING BRACKETS (bonded to ground plane)

15 15

COPPER GROUND PLANE

Test Criteria
Copper Media Tests Performed

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EMI Tests Performed to MIL-STD-461D

Radiated Susceptibility, RS103, With Exposure to 200 V/m Fields (Highest Limit Found on External Wing Pod for Carrier Deck Suitability) Radiated Emissions, RE102 Conducted Susceptibility, CS114, With Highest Current Injection - 115dBA

Vibration and Crosstalk on Quad Cable Cable Frequency Response

Test Criteria

Cable Tests Performed

Cable Description 50 Coaxial 75 Triaxial

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Tested Radiated Radiated Conducted Vibration Data Rates Susceptibility Emissions Susceptibility 266 Mbaud 1.062 Gbaud 266 Mbaud 531 Mbaud 266 Mbaud 1.062 Gbaud 266 Mbaud

X X

X X

Quad Twisted Shielded Pair

Test Criteria

Test Results

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Quad cable offers the hardest EMI protection and has excellent signal integrity - passed all emissions and susceptibility tests Coax cable has good performance and can maintain isolated grounds in multiple-contact connectors - passed all emissions and susceptibility tests Triax cable could not support data rates above 1/2X and could only pass radiated susceptibility tests by shortening the overall cable length from 72 feet to 42 feet Testing on twisted, shielded pair cable halted after radiated emissions testing, due to its failing external aircraft limits and its generally poor performance (could not support data rates above 266 Mbaud, due mainly to excess contact capacitance)

Test Criteria

Emissions and Susceptibility

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Emissions refers to the measure of energy generated by the Unit Under Test (UUT) Bit patterns should be those able to produce most energy at frequency of interest

Susceptibility is measured by focusing an interfering, CW field at the cable/connector assembly and determining the number of bit errors injected onto the link The Fibre Channel standard requires a bit error rate of no greater than 10-12. Practical test limitations make this measurement impossible and MIL-STD-461 requirement used instead, which states that a single upset constitutes a failure

Interface Design Criteria DC-, Capacitively- and Transformer-Coupled Interfaces

Receiver Transmission Line

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Transmitter R1T

+ v1

+ R2T v2

R1R

R2R

Interface Design Criteria

How Does Transformer-Coupling Reject Common-Mode Signals?

I

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The secondary of the transformer responds to the net current through the primary, so, in theory, no common-mode noise passes A capacitively-coupled link does not reject common-mode noise

In addition, AC-coupling (either capacitive or transformer) eliminates the large voltage differences (between transmitter and receiver) that can upset the receiver and result in data errors or even damage

Interface Design Criteria

Jitter and Equalization

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The most common cause of jitter in copper cables is the high-frequency attenuation of the signal - the cable simply acts like a lowpass filter

This cable response to a Fibre Channel K28.5 symbol sequence ...

Produces this eye pattern when the oscilloscope is triggered from the data clock rather than a pattern trigger

Such deterministic jitter (DJ) is statistically quite different from the random jitter (RJ) that occurs, for example, from thermal noise We can reduce this distortion by applying an inverse function - an equalizer

Interface Design Criteria

Equalization = Jitter Elimination

amplitude (dB) 25 20 15 10 5 0 -5 -10 -15 -20 -25 frequency

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equalizer is in series with cable and boosts the response as the cable attenuates

data spectrum extends beyond the cable break frequency

Equalizer Compensates For Cables Lowpass Characteristic - Benefits Are

Longer Links Higher Data Rates Lower Bit Error Rate After Equalization

cable attenuation characteristics

Before Equalization

A 1.5 Gigabit/second received signal before equalization ...cleans up after equalization and logic compression

Determining the Test Data Sequence

Detailed Test Setup Criteria

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MIL-STD-461 requires that a worst-case data sequence be used, but what constitutes the worst case? A 1010... pattern concentrates most of its energy at a single frequency, but is that the frequency where worst-case performance occurs?
100 90 V/m) Limit Level (dB 80 70

MIL-STD-461 sets the most stringent constraints for emissions below 100 MHz, but the fundamental for a 1.062 Gbaud data signal is a 531 MHz A 11001100... pattern produces a 266 MHz component - still higher than the most stringent region

60 50 40

Internal

External
30 20 10 0 0 0 1 10 100 1000 10000 100000

Frequency (MHz)

Other considerations, such as cable/connector resonances due to cable lengths, will create most vulnerable frequencies at still other points within the spectrum

Detailed Test Setup Criteria

Spectrum of a 1010... Pattern

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The Fibre Channel symbol D21.5 is an alternating pattern of ones and zeroes, producing a strong spectral component at fc/2, as well as odd multiples of this frequency (the odd multiples are out of range on this plot)

Detailed Test Setup Criteria

Lower Frequency Test Patterns

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A spectrum with dominant frequency at fc/4 and with significant energy at some other lower frequencies is produced by the pattern 11001100... combined with similar Fibre Channel patterns Here we generate a pattern in which the Running Disparity (cumulative difference between ones and zeros) changes very slowly, producing lowfrequency components

Detailed Test Setup Criteria

The K28.5 Pattern

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The K28.5 pattern occurs frequently in Fibre Channel applications because it is part of the Idle Sequence It concentrates energy at just a few discrete frequencies, including a strong component at fc/10

Detailed Test Setup Criteria

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The Pseudorandom Bit Sequence (PRBS)

0

Zero Risetime
-50 P/delta(f)

-100

If we simply use the Bit Error Rate Testers pseudorandom bit sequence (PRBS) generator, the spectrum looks like this Randomly generating ones and zeros produces a very flat passband response - all the way down to the lowest frequencies

-150

-200

Risetime = 1/10 BitPeriod

-250

-300 1.00E+06

1.00E+08

1.00E+10 frequency

1.00E+12

1.00E+14

AC-coupled data links cannot pass these low frequencies so this is not an appropriate pattern

The Compliant Pseudorandom Bit Sequence (CPRBS)

Detailed Test Setup Criteria

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The CPRBS is a large sequence of symbols compliant with the Fibre Channel standard producing a spectrum that is fairly flat across the passband Note the spectral null at DC This sequence does a nice job of stimulating a lot of different frequencies simultaneously

Detailed Test Setup Criteria

The Concatenated Test Signal

No way to know the worst case pattern in advance

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One solution - test the cable/connector assemblies with each of several patterns - a tedious effort that easily increases test time by a factor of N where N is the number of different patterns A practical solution to this problem is to use a concatenated test signal, consisting of each of the subpatterns (1010..., 11001100..., K28.5, etc.) with each subpattern containing enough bits that the detection filter (in the case of emissions testing) has sufficient time to peak on that subpattern Test signal must also cycle through all subpatterns fast enough to make sure that each subpattern is seen, since the detection filters center frequency is being scanned - that is, moved up in frequency at some predefined rate

Detailed Test Setup Criteria

Validation of the Need for a Concatenated Test Pattern

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Is all of this data manipulation really necessary to guarantee that we capture failures?
During 266 Mbaud testing of the twisted, shielded pair cable, the external aircraft emissions limit was exceeded at 117 MHz using the CONCATENATE pattern Subsequent testing using a 1010... pattern did not reveal the emissions failure

Test Results

Quad Cable Subjected to 4 GHz CW Radiation, 200V/m

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The quad cable showed extremely low emissions and susceptibility its eye pattern rarely deviated from the oscilloscope image at left

Triaxial Cable Subjected to Interfering Radiation

Test Results

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The eye pattern at left is for the triaxial cable with a benign radiation environment in the chamber, 266 Megabaud With the chamber field intensity raised to 200 V/m, the eye pattern shows significant closure Increasing the intensity only slightly above 200 V/m produced bit errors at certain frequencies These measurements performed with 42 foot cable length

Test Results

Twisted Shielded Pair

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Twisted Shielded Pair was supplied in 26 gauge and 22 gauge versions by 2 suppliers. However, no contact could be found for either of the 22 gauge cables. The contacts chosen for use with the 26 gauge cables were small (size 10) to accommodate high density 38999 applications where large numbers of signals must be passed through a single connector The contacts exhibited high capacitance (~ 2 pF) - as a result of the capacitance and conductor size, this cable could support only data rates at 1/4X and below Twisted Shielded Pair did not pass emissions testing (External Aircraft limit) Testing suspended after emissions failure

Test Results

Triaxial Cable

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This cable cannot support 1 Gigabaud data transmission for the configuration used in this test - 72 feet of cable, 5 bulkhead connectors, and 2 discrete (boxface) connectors. Triaxial cable passed radiated emissions tests at 266 Mbaud and 531 Mbaud, however, it was able to pass radiated susceptibility only after shortening cable length to 42 feet (and eliminating 2 bulkhead connectors) This cable could possibly support 1 Gigabaud over shorter distances, but its EMI/EMC performance under such conditions is unknown Cable showed marginal bit error performance at certain frequencies for 200 V/m radiated susceptibility (531 Mbaud)

Test Results

Coaxial Cable
This cable easily supported data transmission at 1 Gigabaud

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Coaxial cable passed all radiated susceptibility, radiated emissions, and conducted susceptibility tests at 266 Mbaud and 1 Gigabaud

Cable showed marginal bit error performance at certain frequencies for 200 V/m radiated susceptibility (1 Gigabaud)

Bit error performance in radiated environments can probably be improved by use of center-tapped transformers in link (interface unit manufacturer grounded transformers on return side)

This cable may be a good choice for future applications, especially considering its cost

Test Results

Quad Cable
y

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Quad cable easily passed all emissions and susceptibility tests Cable easily supported 1 Gigabaud transmission Cable passed vibration testing - random and sinusoidal, using aircraft composite profiles Crosstalk: -29 dB at 500 MHz

+
r x

Cross-section of a quad cable, showing electric field generated by the horizontally-oriented pair

Conclusions

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1 Gigabaud data rate is probably highest that can be supported by copper media of reasonable size, suitable for aircraft installation, over required distance Both quad cable and coax cable perform well relative to EMI considerations Quad cable is hardest in terms of EMI and has excellent signal integrity - however, highest cost Coax cable has good performance, low cost, and can maintain isolated grounds in multiple-contact connectors Triax cable could not support data rates above 1/2X and could only pass radiated susceptibility tests by shortening the overall cable length from 72 feet to 42 feet Testing on twisted, shielded pair cable halted after radiated emissions testing, due to its exceeding external aircraft limits and its generally poor performance (due mainly to excess contact capacitance) Next step is to perform similar testing on candidate fiber optic systems in aircraft