grounding in high speed systemsGROUNDING IN HIGH SPEED SYSTEMS Walt Kester, James BryantThe importance of maintaining a low impedance large area ground plane is critical to practically all analog circuits today, especially at high speeds. The ground plane not only acts as a low impedance return path for high frequency currents but also minimizes EMI/RFI emissions. Because of the shielding action of the ground plane, the circuits susceptibility to external EMI/RFI is also reduced. All IC ground pins should be soldered directly to the ground plane to minimize series inductance. Power supply pins should be decoupled to the ground plane using low inductance ceramic surface mount capacitors. If through-hole mounted ceramic capacitors must be used, their leads should be less than 1mm. Ferrite beads may be also required. The ……