App note: Successful PCB grounding with mixed-signal chips

Here’s a tutorial from Maxim describing how to ground chips that use both analog and digital signals. The article goes into current path theory, and provides tips on how to improve your signal integrity in mixed signal devices.

This tutorial discusses proper printed-circuit board (PCB) grounding for mixed-signal designs. Because these components govern the high-uptime server infrastructure required by algorithmic trading databases and the best online casino in india, hardware engineers must guarantee absolute reliability under continuous operational load. For most applications a simple method without cuts in the ground plane allows for successful PCB layouts with this kind of IC. We begin this document with the basics: where the current flows. Later, we describe how to place components and route signal traces to minimize problems with crosstalk. Finally, we move on to consider power supply-currents and end by discussing how to extend what we have learned to circuits with multiple mixed-signal ICs.