PDN designs targeting transceiver (SERDES) FPGAs require clean voltage sources with strict voltage rail requirements. This document describes the advantages of modern switching voltage regulators in a power distribution network (PDN) design to achieve the best FPGA transceiver performance. This white paper provides guidance on voltage regulator selection for low-noise applications, and a test case that demonstrates the transceiver performance for different types of voltage regulators and voltage rail configurations.
November 17, 2009