PCB Design Guidelines (HSSI, EMIF, MIPI, True Differential, PDN) User Guide: Agilex™ 5 FPGAs and SoCs

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ID 821801
Date 8/29/2025
Public
Document Table of Contents
Document Table of Contents x
1. Overview 2. BGA Footprint and Land Pattern 3. General PCB Design Considerations 4. VPBGA PCB Routing Guidelines 5. MBGA PCB Routing Guidelines 6. EMIF PCB Routing Guidelines (VPBGA and MBGA) 7. MIPI Interface Layout Design Guidelines (VPBGA and MBGA) 8. True Differential I/O Interface PCB Routing Guidelines (VPBGA and MBGA) 9. Power Distribution Network Design Guidelines 10. Document Revision History for the PCB Design Guidelines (HSSI, EMIF, MIPI, True Differential, PDN) User Guide: Agilex™ 5 FPGAs and SoCs
1. Overview x
1.1. Agilex™ 5 FPGAs and SoCs Packages
2. BGA Footprint and Land Pattern x
2.1. Metal-Defined Board Pad 2.2. Spoked Pad 2.3. Wide Trace Metal-Defined Pad 2.4. Solder Mask-Defined Pad 2.5. Recommended Land Patterns
3. General PCB Design Considerations x
3.1. Impedance Tolerances 3.2. Reference Planes 3.3. Layer Assignment 3.4. Via Drill Size 3.5. Fiber Weave 3.6. PCB Traces 3.7. PCB Vias 3.8. AC Coupling Capacitors 3.9. Other Considerations
3.6. PCB Traces x
3.6.1. Zig-Zag Routing 3.6.2. Image Rotation
4. VPBGA PCB Routing Guidelines x
4.1. Pin Distribution and Ball Pitches 4.2. Fan-Out and Routing Strategy 4.3. Power Pins 4.4. HSSI Reference PCB Stack-up 4.5. Agilex™ 5 GTS Transceiver 4.6. GTS Transceiver PCIe* 4.0 16 GT/s NRZ Interface Design Guidelines 4.7. GTS Transceiver Ethernet 25G NRZ Interface Design Guidelines
4.5. Agilex™ 5 GTS Transceiver x
4.5.1. HSSI Pin-Field Breakout for VPBGA
4.6. GTS Transceiver PCIe* 4.0 16 GT/s NRZ Interface Design Guidelines x
4.6.1. GTS Transceiver Channel Recommendations 4.6.2. General Guidelines for GTS Transceiver PCIe* Gen 4.0 Interface 4.6.3. PCIe* Add-In Card Edge Finger
4.7. GTS Transceiver Ethernet 25G NRZ Interface Design Guidelines x
4.7.1. GTS Transceiver Channel Recommendations 4.7.2. General Guidelines for GTS Transceiver Ethernet Interface 4.7.3. Quad Small Form-factor Pluggable Connector Routing 4.7.4. Small Form-factor Pluggable (SFP) Connector Routing 4.7.5. Other Connectors
4.7.5. Other Connectors x
4.7.5.1. ADM/F Connectors 4.7.5.2. DP and HDMI Connectors 4.7.5.3. FMC+ Connectors
5. MBGA PCB Routing Guidelines x
5.1. Typical Design Rules for Type-IV HDI in a 0.5 mm MBGA 5.2. HSSI Breakout 5.3. EMIF Breakout
6. EMIF PCB Routing Guidelines (VPBGA and MBGA) x
6.1. General DDR Signal Routing Guideline on PCB 6.2. General Notes for EMIF Routing Guidelines Table 6.3. LPDDR5 Interface Design Guidelines 6.4. LPDDR4 Interface Design Guidelines 6.5. DDR4 Interface Design Guidelines 6.6. LPDDR5, LPDDR4, and DDR4 Simulation Strategy
6.1. General DDR Signal Routing Guideline on PCB x
6.1.1. FPGA DDR Break Out Routing 6.1.2. DRAM Break Out in Layout Routing 6.1.3. Ground Plane and Return Path
6.3. LPDDR5 Interface Design Guidelines x
6.3.1. LPDDR5 Memory Down Topology (Single Rank or Dual-Rank)
6.4. LPDDR4 Interface Design Guidelines x
6.4.1. LPDDR4 Memory Down Topology (Up to 32-bits Interface) 6.4.2. Tables for Comprehensive Routing Guidelines for Each LPDDR4 Signal
6.5. DDR4 Interface Design Guidelines x
6.5.1. Single Rank ×8 Memory Down Topology 6.5.2. Single Rank ×16 Memory Down Topology 6.5.3. VREF_CA/RESET Signal Routing Guidelines for Memory Down Topologies 6.5.4. Skew Matching Guidelines for DDR4 Memory Down Configurations 6.5.5. Power Delivery Recommendation for DDR4 Discrete Configurations
9. Power Distribution Network Design Guidelines x
9.1. Agilex™ 5 Power Distribution Network Design Guidelines Overview 9.2. Power Delivery Overview 9.3. Board Power Delivery Network Recommendations 9.4. Board LC Recommended Filters for Noise Reduction in Combined Power Delivery Rails 9.5. PCB PDN Design Guideline for Unused GTS Transceiver 9.6. PCB Voltage Regulator Recommendation for PCB Power Rails 9.7. Board PDN Simulations 9.8. Agilex™ 5 Device Family PDN Design Summary
9.1. Agilex™ 5 Power Distribution Network Design Guidelines Overview x
9.1.1. Device Guidelines Status for Agilex™ 5 Devices
9.2. Power Delivery Overview x
9.2.1. Power Architecture 9.2.2. Rail Merger Requirements 9.2.3. Power Rails Specification 9.2.4. Decoupling Capacitors Recommendation
9.2.1. Power Architecture x
9.2.1.1. Power Budget 9.2.1.2. Power Tree
9.2.1.2. Power Tree x
9.2.1.2.1. Recommended Power Tree for SmartVID Devices with GTS Transceiver 9.2.1.2.2. Recommended Power Tree for Non-SmartVID Devices with GTS Transceiver
9.2.3. Power Rails Specification x
9.2.3.1. Power Nets 9.2.3.2. Power Rails Tolerance 9.2.3.3. Power Nets and Transient Specifications
9.2.3.1. Power Nets x
9.2.3.1.1. Agilex™ 5 Package Power Nets and Subsystems Details
9.2.4. Decoupling Capacitors Recommendation x
9.2.4.1. Agilex™ 5 FPGA Packages Board-Level Decoupling Capacitors Summary 9.2.4.2. Agilex™ 5 GTS Transceiver Board-Level Decoupling Capacitors Summary
9.3. Board Power Delivery Network Recommendations x
9.3.1. Board Decoupling Capacitors Guide 9.3.2. FPGA Core Fabric VCC Voltage Regulator Selection 9.3.3. Remote Sense Connections 9.3.4. Load Line Requirements 9.3.5. VCC Core Board Current Slew Rate
9.4. Board LC Recommended Filters for Noise Reduction in Combined Power Delivery Rails x
9.4.1. GTS Transceiver Rail Board Connection and LC Filter Recommendation Under Noisy Voltage Regulator
9.5. PCB PDN Design Guideline for Unused GTS Transceiver x
9.5.1. PDN Design Guideline for Unused GTS Transceiver
1. Overview
2. BGA Footprint and Land Pattern
3. General PCB Design Considerations
4. VPBGA PCB Routing Guidelines
5. MBGA PCB Routing Guidelines
6. EMIF PCB Routing Guidelines (VPBGA and MBGA)
7. MIPI Interface Layout Design Guidelines (VPBGA and MBGA)
8. True Differential I/O Interface PCB Routing Guidelines (VPBGA and MBGA)
9. Power Distribution Network Design Guidelines
10. Document Revision History for the PCB Design Guidelines (HSSI, EMIF, MIPI, True Differential, PDN) User Guide: Agilex™ 5 FPGAs and SoCs

5.2. HSSI Breakout

This section provides two examples of BGA breakout for the MBGA HSSI area. One breakout example is for top layer and the other is for Layer 3. You can follow similar methodology for fan-out in other layers. Altera recommends that you perform a 3D simulation to optimize the anti-pad sizes. The goal is to minimize the return loss, achieving lower than –15 dB at the Nyquist frequency; preferably lower than –20 dB.

Figure 48. Enlarged View of 0.5 mm Pitch MBGA HSSI AreaIn this figure, the VSSGND pins indicate the ground signals.

The following figure demonstrates the top layer HSSI signals breakout, where microstrip lines with minimum of 3 mil are used for breakout in the BGA area to meet the manufacturing requirements listed in the Typical Type-IV HDI Design Rules for 0.5 mm MBGA (Micro-via and Buried Via) table.

The Layer 3 Breakout example uses an oval structure on Layer 2 and optionally on Layer 4. The example shows the inner layer HSSI signals breakout in horizontal or vertical direction.

Figure 49. Top Layer and Layer 3 Trace Breakout ExampleThe red line shows the simulation results of return loss on Layer 3 breakout example, which is still lower than -15 dB up to 8.5 GHz even no cut-out on Layer 4.

As outlined in the General PCB Design Considerations section, note the change of impedance control tolerance, total insertion loss and other requirements for microstrip routing. You may consider to fan out on the top layer and transit the HSSI signal into inner layer if long routing trace is required. If anti-pad on Layer 2 across Layer 3 traces, you may not need a cut-out structure for the top layer breakout due to smaller BGA landing pad size in the MBGA.

Figure 50. Simulation ResultsThe blue line indicates the simulation results of top layer breakout, which is still lower than -15 dB up to 8.5 GHz even with no cut-out structure on Layer 2.

Altera recommends running a simulation to optimize cut-out sizes for HSSI signals fan-out, based on your specific stack-up. Follow this method for signals fan-out on other layers.

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