IAM Electronic - Instrumentation And Measurement Electronics FMC LPC Breakout 


DS#T0003 REV 2018/10/30 
PDF version (coming soon), HTML version

Breakout board for Low-Pin Count
FPGA Mezzanine Cards

Features
  • ANSI/VITA 57.1 compliant
  • Commercial grade form factor
  • Low-pin count (LPC) connectors
  • Breakout of carrier card connector
  • Breakout of mezzanine card connector
  • Stackable assembly
  • Separate breakout of power pins
  • Breakout pads with 1.27 mm pitch
  • Prototyping area with 2.54 mm grid
  • Open-source hardware
Block diagram

FMC LPC Breakout board Block Diagram

The photos below show the bottom side with LPC mezzanine card connector (MC-LPC-10) and top side with LPC carrier card connector (CC-LPC-10).

  FMC LPC Breakout board with MC-LPC-10 on top FMC LPC Breakout board with CC-LPC-10 on bottom
Bottom side                                 Top side
Applications
  • Easy prototyping
  • Testing and debugging of FMC modules
  • Research and education with FPGAs


1. Description

The FMC LPC Breakout board is a passive adapter for accessing all signals of ANSI/VITA 57.1 FPGA Mezzanine Card (FMC) Standard compliant low-pin count (LPC) connectors. All pins of the connector's rows C, D, G, and H are routed to a separate pad array on the top and bottom side. These pads were placed at a 1.27 mm pitch to easily attach additional probes or solder wires. For special measuring tasks or for use as a stand-alone carrier, the power pins of the connector were routed to additional vias in the back of the module. Furthermore, simple electrical circuits can be realized on the prototyping area, which is a field of non connected vias with a pitch of 2.54 mm. The FPGA mezzanine card has commercial grade form factor (single width, 78.80 mm x 69 mm) and is designed for air cooling.


2. Application information

The FMC LPC Breakout module is predestined for three typical applications:

1. Passive FMC module
The board can be used as a passive FMC module or breadboard. Functionality must be realised by external circuitry on the prototyping area.
FMC LPC Breakout board with separate power pin vias
Fig. 1: FMC LPC Breakout module plugged on carrier board (Digilent Nexys Video™ Board, 410-316).

2. Simple FMC carrier
The module can also be used as simple FMC carrier board. This card cannot be used to implement a whole application, but basic functions can be provided. For example, the correct behavior of an attached FMC module can be verified by providing an external power supply through the FMC LPC Breakout board. Or even a simple I2C programmer and reader for a FRU (field replaceable unit) record can be implemented with this carrier board as a basis.

3. Test point insertion (stacked assembly)
The most reasonable application of the module is probably its use as an external test point array for devices under test. The connectors on the top and bottom allow the stacking of at least two external FMC boards. Thus the FMC LPC Breakout module in the middle of the stack between a carrier and mezzanine card provides test points for all signals passing through the connectors. With such a configuration, a real world FMC setup can be evaluated and debugged.

4. Loopback testing
For the implementation of high-speed data links with FPGAs, loopback testing is a useful method for evaluating performance of the carrier platform and verifying the FPGA design. The FMC LPC Breakout Module can be hooked up as loopback device by shorting the appropriate pins on the board. We have checked different soldered wire connections at two line rates (1350 MHz and 3375 MHz) with Xilinx IBERT core on Xilinx Artix-7 FPGA (XC7A200T-1SBG484C). All the loose cable connections from Tab. 1 were capable of transmitting pseudorandom binary sequence pattens (7-bit PRBS pattern) at the tested data rates without any errors.


Tab. 1: FMC LPC Breakout Module with different soldered wire connections for shorting the loopback. The eye scans were recorded with Xilinx IBERT core for GTP transceivers on a Artix-7 FPGA (XC7A200T-1SBG484C).
Soldered wire connection Eye scan at 1.350 GHz Eye scan at 3.375 GHz

FMC LPC Breakout module, short circuit with short wires.

FMC LPC Breakout module, Loopback test with short wires at 1350 MHz.

FMC LPC Breakout module, Loopback test with short wires at 3375 MHz.

FMC LPC Breakout module, short circuit with long wires.

FMC LPC Breakout module, Loopback test with long wires at 1350 MHz.

FMC LPC Breakout module, Loopback test with long wires at 3375 MHz.

FMC LPC Breakout module, short circuit with thick wires.

FMC LPC Breakout module, Loopback test with thick wires at 1350 MHz.

FMC LPC Breakout module, Loopback test with thick wires at 3375 MHz.

For more demanding loopback applications (higher data rates, multiple lanes, etc.) we recommend the use of our FMC Loopback Module.

General information
Depending on the application, it is recommended to solder additional pin headers to the power pin array and to the breakout pad array. Standard pin headers are suitable and fit the PCB layout.
FMC LPC Breakout module with separate power pin vias and pin headers
Fig. 2: FMC LPC Breakout module with separate power vias and equipped pin headers (20 pos., 2.54 mm pitch).


3. Electrical data (pin description)

The printed circuit board is open-source hardware! You can download the FMC LPC breakout board schematics and PCB layout files in their latest revision from http://www.fmchub.com. The parts list (see tab. 1) is very simple, because it consists of only two parts.

Tab. 2: Parts list of the FMC LPC Breakout board.
FMC connector Samtec part no. Molex part no. Description
1. CC-LPC-10 ASP-134603-01 45971-4305 female, baseboard side, Low-pin count (LPC), 160 I/O, tin-lead
2. MC-LPC-10 ASP-134604-01 45970-4305 male, mezzanine card side, Low-pin count (LPC), 160 I/O, lead-free, 10 mm mated stack height

A description of the signals from the LPC connector can be found at https://fmchub.github.io/appendix/VITA57_FMC_HPC_LPC_SIGNALS_AND_PINOUT.html.

The ANSI/VITA 57.1 FMC standard describes different power supply pins on the LPC connector. The most important are routed to a separate via row next to the FMC connector in the back of the module (see fig. 3).
FMC LPC Breakout board with separate power pin vias
Fig. 3: FMC LPC Breakout board with separate power vias (2.54 mm pitch).

A list of the power supply pins provided by the via row is shown in tab. 2.

Tab. 3: Power pin vias and their signal names, locations, and trace widths on the PCB.
Signal name Source Destination Trace width
VADJ H40 Power Via #1 0.254 mm (10 mil)
VADJ G39 Power Via #2 0.254 mm (10 mil)
GND G38 Power Via #3 0.254 mm (10 mil)
GND D39 Power Via #4 0.254 mm (10 mil)
3P3V C39 Power Via #5 0.254 mm (10 mil)
GND G40 Power Via #6 0.254 mm (10 mil)
12P0V C37 Power Via #7 0.254 mm (10 mil)
GND D25 Power Via #8 0.254 mm (10 mil)
12P0V C35 Power Via #9 0.254 mm (10 mil)
GND C21 Power Via #10 0.254 mm (10 mil)
3P3V D40 Power Via #11 0.254 mm (10 mil)
GND D19 Power Via #12 0.254 mm (10 mil)
3P3V D38 Power Via #13 0.254 mm (10 mil)
GND G14 Power Via #14 0.254 mm (10 mil)
3P3V D36 Power Via #15 0.254 mm (10 mil)
GND G11 Power Via #16 0.254 mm (10 mil)
3P3VAUX D32 Power Via #17 0.254 mm (10 mil)
GND D3 Power Via #18 0.254 mm (10 mil)
PRSNT_M2C_L H2 Power Via #19 0.254 mm (10 mil)
GND C1 Power Via #20 0.254 mm (10 mil)

The signals from the LPC connector are routed to an array of pads (fig. 4).
FMC LPC Breakout board with array of pads
Fig. 4: FMC LPC Breakout board with an array of pads (1.27 mm pitch) for general purpose access to ANSI/VITA 57.1 signals.

Tab. 4: Signals of the ANSI/VITA 57.1 FMC LPC connector and pad array.
Pin # Row H Row G Row D Row C
1 VREF_A_M2C GND PG_C2M GND
2 PRSNT_M2C_L CLK1_M2C_P GND DP0_C2M_P
3 GND CLK1_M2C_N GND DP0_C2M_N
4 CLK0_M2C_P GND GBTCLK0_M2C_P GND
5 CLK0_M2C_N GND GBTCLK0_M2C_N GND
6 GND LA00_P_CC GND DP0_M2C_P
7 LA02_P LA00_N_CC GND DP0_M2C_N
8 LA02_N GND LA01_P_CC GND
9 GND LA03_P LA01_N_CC GND
10 LA04_P LA03_N GND LA06_P
11 LA04_N GND LA05_P LA06_N
12 GND LA08_P LA05_N GND
13 LA07_P LA08_N GND GND
14 LA07_N GND LA09_P LA10_P
15 GND LA12_P LA09_N LA10_N
16 LA11_P LA12_N GND GND
17 LA11_N GND LA13_P GND
18 GND LA16_P LA13_N LA14_P
19 LA15_P LA16_N GND LA14_N
20 LA15_N GND LA17_P_CC GND
21 GND LA20_P LA17_N_CC GND
22 LA19_P LA20_N GND LA18_P_CC
23 LA19_N GND LA23_P LA18_N_CC
24 GND LA22_P LA23_N GND
25 LA21_P LA22_N GND GND
26 LA21_N GND LA26_P LA27_P
27 GND LA25_P LA26_N LA27_N
28 LA24_P LA25_N GND GND
29 LA24_N GND TCK GND
30 GND LA29_P TDI SCL
31 LA28_P LA29_N TDO SDA
32 LA28_N GND 3P3VAUX GND
33 GND LA31_P TMS GND
34 LA30_P LA31_N TRST_L GA0
35 LA30_N GND GA1 12P0V
36 GND LA33_P 3P3V GND
37 LA32_P LA33_N GND 12P0V
38 LA32_N GND 3P3V GND
39 GND VADJ GND 3P3V
40 VADJ GND 3P3V GND

Please note that all Ground pins on the FMC LPC Breakout board are not tied together. This also applies to all other pins with identical function on the connector. Traces from the LPC connector to the breakout pads have a minimum width of 0.127 mm (5 mil).


4. Mechanical data

The board outline is defined by ANSI/VITA 57.1 standard for single width FMC modules. The board includes region 2 and region 3 of that standard. Region 1 for additional I/O connectivity with a front panel has been omitted, such that absolute board dimensions are 78.80 mm x 69 mm. Cut outs on board shape have a radius of 1 mm. Exact dimensions are given in figure 5.


Fig. 5: Mechanical drawing of the FMC LPC breakout board.

The mounting holes are plated but have no electrical connection. Their sizes and positions are in accordance with ANSI/VITA 57.1 single width FMC modules with commercial grade mounting (air cooled).


Fig. 6: Product photo of FMC LPC breakout board (bottom view).


Fig. 7: Product photo of FMC LPC breakout board (top view).

5. Ordering information
The FMC LPC Breakout module can be ordered at various online market places, or you can request a quotation by sending an e-mail to info@iamelectronic.com.

Tab. 5: Assembly variants of FMC LPC Breakout board with product numbers and market places.
Product no. Description Market place Request quote Standard lead time
T0003 FMC LPC Breakout module with both
MC-LPC-10 and CC-LPC-10 connectors on bottom and top side.
IAM Electronic Shop

Ebay #183804369803

Tindie
#11490

Designspark
#429

info@iamelectronic.com Normally in stock, otherwise 3 weeks
T0003MC FMC LPC Breakout module only with
MC-LPC-10 connector on bottom side.
not available (request quote) info@iamelectronic.com Normally in stock, otherwise 3 weeks
T0003CC FMC LPC Breakout module only with
CC-LPC-10 connector on top side.
not available (request quote) info@iamelectronic.com Normally in stock, otherwise 3 weeks

6. Document history
Document number:
DS#T0003

Version history:
2018/10/30: Added loopback testing results to 2. Application information
2018/08/23: Added Designspark Marketplace to 6. Ordering information
2018/03/15: Added Standard lead times to 5. Ordering information
2018/02/22: Added links for schematics and pcb files, update ordering information
2018/02/14: Minor changes (wording, formatting, etc.)
2018/02/13: Initial release

7. Imprint
Name and registered office of the company:
IAM Electronic GmbH
Bucksdorffstr. 43
04159 Leipzig
Germany

Contact:
Phone: +49 341 26496031
E-Mail: info@iamelectronic.com

Chief Executive Officer: Dr. Philipp Födisch

Commercial register:
Register court: Amtsgericht Leipzig
Register number: HRB 34071
Value Added Tax Identification Number: DE313797981