02042-DSH-001-C 8/03 Page 7 of 14
MC2042-4
LED/Laser Driver for FDDI, Fast Ethernet, Fibre Channel, OC3/STM-1, IEEE1394
Preliminary Information
Information provided in this Data Sheet is PRELIMINARY and is subject to change without notice.
Mindspeed™ Technologies, Proprietary and Confidential
FUNCTIONAL DESCRIPTION
Transmit Enable/Disable
There is no dedicated pin on the MC2042 to disable the
LED drive current. However, the LED drive current can
be disabled by disabling the current out of pin RTSET.
The LED current is approximately 100x the current out of
pin RTSET, so if the current out of this pin is 0, the LED
drive current is 0. However, if peaking is used the peaking
current will not be disabled.
Figure 5 illustrates how the current out of RTSET can be
disabled by adding a MOSFET (Q1) at the RTSET node
of the R1/R2 temperature compensation network. The
voltage on the gate of Q1 then controls transmit enable/
disable. When selecting Q1, a MOSFET should be
chosen with an Rds(on) which is negligible compared to
R1 and R2.
Pre-Emphasis Or ‘Peaking’
To improve LED ‘turn on’ time an optional pre-emphasis
function is included on the MC2042-4. If this is not
required, then the PEAK pin should be left floating.
Two external components (R4, C1) are required as shown
in Fig. 3 to implement peaking.
When the LED is turned on, the voltage on PEAK is pulled
LOW very rapidly. This voltage transient is coupled
through R4 and C1 and exerts a transient current on the
LED.
When the LED is turned off, the voltage on PEAK is pulled
HIGH rapidly. This voltage transient is coupled through
R4 and C1 and exerts a transient current in the opposite
direction on the LED.
The transient current amplitude and RC decay are given
approximately by:
Peak current (Amps): 4/(R4 + 5)
Decay (seconds): C1 x (R4 + 5)
The above approximations assume an ideal LED model
with 0 Ohms resistance. Real LEDs will slightly alter the
peaking effect. Typical values for R4 and C1 are:
R4 = 50 Ω
C1 = 20 pF
LED Clamping, Laser Driving
Since most LEDs exhibit a longer ‘turn off’ time than ‘turn
on’ time, a clamping function is included on the MC2042
in order to reduce the ‘turn off’ time. Clamping is enabled
via the two VDD2 connections.
The disadvantage of clamping is that the LED’s internal
capacitance has to be fully charged again before the LED
starts to emit light. This delayed ‘turn on’ effect becomes
noticeable when the nominal LED drive current is low.
Use of the peaking circuit helps solve this problem. Thus,
the combination of peaking and clamping results in very
fast ‘turn on’ and ‘turn off’ times for the LED.
When driving lasers, it will often be helpful to disable this
clamping. This can be achieved by leaving the VDD2
connections floating. VDD1 must still be connected.
R1
R2
RTSET
RTSET2
(unused)
External Diode
for Temp. Comp.
Fig. 4
R1
R2
RTSET RTSET2
Transmit Enable
Fig. 5
Q1