Data Sheet AD8114/AD8115
Rev. C | Page 21 of 25
Using additional crosspoint devices in the design can lower the
number of outputs that must be wire-OR’ed together. Figure 49
shows a block diagram of a system using eight AD8114 devices
and two AD8115 devices to create a nonblocking, gain-of-2,
128 × 16 crosspoint that restricts the wire-OR’ing at the
output to only four outputs.
Additionally, by using the lower eight outputs from each of the
two Rank 2 AD8115 devices, a blocking 128 × 32 crosspoint
array can be realized. There are, however, some drawbacks to
this technique. The offset voltages of the various cascaded
devices accumulates, and the bandwidth limitations of the
devices compound. In addition, the extra devices consume
more current and take up more board space. Once again, the
overall system design specifications determine how to make
the various tradeoffs.
MULTICHANNEL VIDEO
The excellent video specifications of the AD8114/AD8115 make
them ideal candidates for creating composite video crosspoint
switches. These can be made quite dense by taking advantage of
the high level of integration of the AD8114/AD8115 and the
fact that composite video requires only one crosspoint channel
per system video channel. There are, however, other video
formats that can be routed with the AD8114/AD8115 requiring
more than one crosspoint channel per video channel.
Some systems use twisted-pair wiring to carry video signals. These
systems utilize differential signals and can lower costs because
they use lower cost cables, connectors and termination methods.
They also have the ability to lower crosstalk and reject common-
mode signals, which can be important for equipment that
operates in noisy environments or where common-mode voltages
are present between transmitting and receiving equipment.
In such systems, the video signals are differential; there is a
positive and negative (or inverted) version of the signals. These
complementary signals are transmitted onto each of the two
wires of the twisted pair, yielding a first-order zero common-
mode voltage. At the receive end, the signals are differentially
received and converted back into a single-ended signal.
When switching these differential signals, two channels are
required in the switching element to handle the two differential
signals that make up the video channel. Thus, one differential
video channel is assigned to a pair of crosspoint channels, both
input and output. For a single AD8114/AD8115, eight differential
video channels can be assigned to the 16 inputs and 16 outputs.
This effectively forms an 8 × 8 differential crosspoint switch.
Programming such a device requires that inputs and outputs be
programmed in pairs. This information can be deduced by
inspection of the programming format of the AD8114/AD8115
and the requirements of the system.
There are other analog video formats requiring more than one
analog circuit per video channel. One 2-circuit format that is
commonly being used in systems such as satellite TV, digital
cable boxes, and higher quality VCRs is called S-video or Y/C
video. This format carries the brightness (luminance or Y)
portion of the video signal on one channel and the color
(chrominance, chroma, or C) on a second channel.
Since S-video also uses two separate circuits for one video
channel, creating a crosspoint system requires assigning one
video channel to two crosspoint channels, as in the case of a
differential video system. Aside from the nature of the video
format, other aspects of these two systems are the same.
There are yet other video formats using three channels to carry
the video information. Video cameras produce RGB (red, green,
blue) directly from the image sensors. RGB is also the usual
format used by computers internally for graphics. RGB can be
converted to Y, R-Y, B-Y format, sometimes called YUV format.
These 3-circuit video standards are referred to as component
analog video.
The component video standards require three crosspoint channels
per video channel to handle the switching function. In a fashion
similar to the 2-circuit video formats, the inputs and outputs
are assigned in groups of three, and the appropriate logic
programming is performed to route the video signals.
CROSSTALK
Many systems, such as broadcast video, that handle numerous
analog signal channels have strict requirements for keeping the
various signals from influencing any of the others in the system.
Crosstalk is the term used to describe the coupling of the
signals of other nearby channels to a given channel.
When there are many signals in close proximity in a system, as
is undoubtedly the case in a system that uses the AD8114/
AD8115, the crosstalk issues can be quite complex. A good
understanding of the nature of crosstalk and some definition
of terms is required to specify a system that uses one or more
AD8114/AD8115 devices.
Types of Crosstalk
Crosstalk can be propagated by means of any of three methods.
These fall into the categories of electric field, magnetic field,
and sharing of common impedances. This section explains
these effects.
Every conductor can be both a radiator of electric fields and a
receiver of electric fields. The electric field crosstalk mechanism
occurs when the electric field created by the transmitter propagates
across a stray capacitance (for example, free space) and couples
with the receiver and induces a voltage. This voltage is an
unwanted crosstalk signal in any channel that receives it.
Currents flowing in conductors create magnetic fields that circulate
around the currents. These magnetic fields then generate voltages
in any other conductors whose paths they link. The undesired
induced voltages in these other channels are crosstalk signals.
The channels that crosstalk can be said to have a mutual
inductance that couples signals from one channel to another.