To learn more about onsemi™, please visit our website at

www.onsemi.com

ON Semiconductor

Is Now

onsemi and and other names, marks, and brands are registered and/or common law trademarks of Semiconductor Components Industries, LLC dba “onsemi” or its affiliates and/or

subsidiaries in the United States and/or other countries. onsemi owns the rights to a number of patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, and other intellectual property. A listing of onsemi

product/patent coverage may be accessed at www.onsemi.com/site/pdf/Patent-Marking.pdf. onsemi reserves the right to make changes at any time to any products or information herein, without

notice. The information herein is provided “as-is” and onsemi makes no warranty, representation or guarantee regarding the accuracy of the information, product features, availability, functionality,

or suitability of its products for any particular purpose, nor does onsemi assume any liability arising out of the application or use of any product or circuit, and specifically disclaims any and all

liability, including without limitation special, consequential or incidental damages. Buyer is responsible for its products and applications using onsemi products, including compliance with all laws,

regulations and safety requirements or standards, regardless of any support or applications information provided by ons emi. “Typical” parameters which may be provided in onsemi data sheets and/

or specifications can and do vary in different applications and actual performance may vary over time. All operating parameters, including “Typicals” must be validated for each customer application

by customer’s technical experts. onsemi does not convey any license under any of its intellectual property rights nor the rights of others. onsemi products are not designed, intended, or authorized

for use as a critical component in life support systems or any FDA Class 3 medical devices or medical devices with a same or similar classification in a foreign jurisdiction or any devices intended for

implantation in the human body. Should Buyer purchase or use onsemi products for any such unintended or unauthorized application, Buyer shall indemnify and hold onsemi and its officers, employees,

subsidiaries, affiliates, and distributors harmless against all claims, costs, damages, and expenses, and reasonable attorney fees arising out of, directly or indirectly, any claim of personal injury or death

associated with such unintended or unauthorized use, even if such claim alleges that onsemi was negligent regarding the design or manufacture of the part. onsemi is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative

Action Employer. This literature is subject to all applicable copyright laws and is not for resale in any manner. Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.

December, 2020 − Rev. 0

1 Publication Order Number:

AND90081/D

Active Cable usage with

ON Semiconductor Redrivers

Introduction

With the increasing requirement for high speed transfer

of larger bulk of data, better quality video and power

delivery, change over from analog to digital videos,

bi−directional transfers, it become essential to use a proper

cable that delivers the data correctly between external hard

drives and other systems or end products.

The use of Active cable becomes a necessity with increase

in cable lengths of more than 5 meters, number of ports

and data rates 10 Gbps and above. To match these using

passive cables will become expensive with increased weight

and thickness.

This application notes looks at need for active cables,

cable losses and solutions available with ON redrivers

for improving usage of long length cable with Type−C

and Type−A connectors.

Necessity for Active Cables

Generally users would prefer to use a longer and thinner

cable. With passive cables, this leads to signal loss

and the end device may fail to work or not receive

the expected input. The USB device will not function

and with no output. To make a passive cable of higher

quality with thicker or multiple copper wires, shielding

and better quality connectors will lead to more expense

increasing thickness and handling issues.

Factors like impedance, skew, cross−talk, attenuation,

differential impedance, bit error rate (BER), jitter

and insertion loss contribute to the cable length limit.

To overcome the above problems, use of active cables

with built−in electronics will help.

Advantages of using Active Cables

Following are the positives in using active cables

with redrivers:

• Can be of longer lengths than passive ones.

• The redriver compensates for signal loss due to skew,

jitter, EMI, cross talk and attenuation that affects signal

integrity.

• Redriver in active cables improves in boost of signal

with increased eye opening, extending the link length

and enabling pass of compliance test.

• Smaller wire gauge can be used providing more

flexibility supporting better bending of cables with

improved air flow.

• Less expensive due to use of low cost wire.

• Active cable supports connectivity of data, video,

security and power application over a single connector

as per USB Type−C standard that allow multiple

functions over the same connector.

Requirement and Issues with Long Cables:

In order to connect to different outputs (like printer,

scanner) that are at various distances from the main input

without loss of data would call for use of a hub in the center

that will act as a cable extension adding to hardware

and electrical point.

Hence the need arises for use of longer cables. But long

cables have losses that varies with frequency, length,

thickness and with different vendors.

To overcome the issue of physical size and flexibility

of usage and to maintain signal integrity calls for long cables

with thinner wire gauge that leads to use of active cables

with redrivers and control circuitry.

www.onsemi.com

APPLICATION NOTE

AND90081/D