Clock Tree Design Considerations

Hardware design in high-performance applications is becoming increasingly complex as systems integrate more functionality and require ever-increasing levels of performance. This trend extends to the board-level clock tree that provides reference timing for the system. A "one size fits all" strategy does not apply when it comes to clock tree design. Optimizing the clock tree to meet both performance and cost requirements depends on a number of factors, including the system architecture, IC timing requirements (frequencies, signal formats, etc.) and the jitter requirements of the end application. Read this white paper to learn how to optimize clock tree design.