Jihong Ren

Simulation and Analysis of Random Decision Errors in Clocked Comparators

Clocked comparators have found widespread use in noise sensitive applications including analog-to-digital converters, wireline receivers, and memory bit-line detectors. However, their nonlinear, time-varying dynamics resulting in discrete output levels have discouraged the use of traditional linear time-invariant (LTI) small-signal analysis and noise simulation techniques. This paper describes a linear, time-varying (LTV) model of clock comparators that can accurately predict the decision error probability without resorting to more general stochastic system models. The LTV analysis framework in conjunction with the linear, periodically time-varying (LPTV) simulation algorithms available from RF circuit simulators can provide insights into the intrinsic sampling and decision operations of clock comparators and the major contribution sources to random decision errors. Two comparators are simulated and compared with laboratory measurements. A 90-nm CMOS comparator is measured to have an equivalent input-referred random noise of 0.73 mVrms for dc inputs, matching simulation results with a short channel excess noise factor ¿ = 2.

Near-Optimal Equalizer and Timing Adaptation for I/O Links Using a BER-Based Metric

A new adaptation strategy of I/O link equalizers is presented based on minimizing the bit error rate (BER) as the objective function to maximize the receiver voltage margin. The adaptation strategy is verified in a 90-nm test chip on both the transmitter finite-impulse response filter (Tx-FIR) and the receiver decision-feedback equalizer (Rx-DFE). The performance is compared with the commonly used sign-sign least mean square (SS-LMS) adaptation and demonstrates significant improvements especially in the case of the Tx-FIR. This paper also demonstrates that in a highly attenuating system that contains both a Tx-FIR and Rx-DFE, using a Tx-FIR subject to peak output power constraint to compensate pre-cursor ISI is worse than solely using an Rx-DFE. The adaptation strategy is further applied to adapt the sampling phase of the clock-and-data recovery loop (CDR). The technique enables near-optimal BER performance by substantially reducing the pre-cursor ISI and requires almost no additional hardware compared to SS-LMS adaptation.

Equalizer Design and Performance Trade-Offs in ADC-Based Serial Links

This paper investigates the performance benefit of using nonuniformly quantized ADCs for implementing high-speed serial receivers with decision-feedback equalization (DFE). A way of determining an optimal set of ADC thresholds to achieve the minimum bit-error rate (BER) is described, which can yield a very different set from the one that minimizes signal quantization errors. By recognizing that both the loop-unrolling DFE receiver and ADC-based DFE receiver decide each received bit based upon the result of a single slicer, an efficient architecture named reduced-slicer partial-response DFE (RS-PRDFE) receiver is proposed. The RS-PRDFE receiver eliminates redundant or unused slicers from the previous DFE receiver implementations. Both the simulation and measurement results from a 10 Gb/s ADC-based receiver fabricated in 65 nm CMOS technology and multiple backplane channels demonstrate that the RS-PRDFE can achieve the BER of a 3-4-bit uniform ADC only with 4 data slicers. Also, the combined use of linear equalizers (LEs) can further reduce the required slicer count in RS-PRDFE receivers, but only when the LEs are realized in analog domain.

Accurate System Voltage and Timing Margin Simulation in High-Speed I/O System Designs

Accurate analysis of system timing and voltage margin including deterministic and random jitter is crucial in high-speed I/O system designs. Traditional SPICE-based simulation techniques can precisely simulate various deterministic jitter sources, such as intersymbol interference (ISI) and crosstalk from passive channels. The inclusion of random jitter in SPICE simulations, however, results in long simulation time. Innovative simulation techniques based on a statistical simulation framework have been recently introduced to cosimulate deterministic and random jitter effects efficiently. This paper presents new improvements on this statistical simulation framework. In particular, we introduce an accurate jitter modeling technique which accounts for bounded jitter with arbitrary spectrum in addition to Gaussian jitter. We also present a rigorous approach to model duty cycle distortion (DCD). A number of I/O systems are considered as examples to validate the proposed modeling methodology.

A 40 Gb/s Serial Link Transceiver in 28 nm CMOS Technology

A SerDes operating at 40 Gb/s optimized for chip-to-chip communication is presented. Equalization consists of 2-tap feed-forward equalizers (FFE) in both transmitter and receiver, a 3-stage continuous-time linear equalizer (CTLE) and discrete-time equalizers including a 17-tap decision feedback equalizer (DFE) and a 3-tap sampled-FFE in the receiver. The SerDes is realized in 28-nm CMOS technology with 23.2 mW/Gb/s power efficiency at 40 Gb/s.

A 5 Gb/s Link With Matched Source Synchronous and Common-Mode Clocking Techniques

A 5 Gb/s source-synchronous signaling system was developed utilizing a new clock/data skew minimization technique. The method incorporates a transmit clock delay line and integrating receiver yielding an increased tolerance to high frequency transmit source jitter. The system has the potential to support rapid turn-on without the clock buffer latency of conventional source-synchronous systems. A second method to minimize clock distribution delays with embedded clocking via superposition of clock in the common-mode across two differential pairs was also explored. A test device was fabricated in TSMCs 40 nm LP CMOS process and performance measurements indicate substantial margin improvements, even when the matched source-synchronous system is subjected to realistic source SJ and independent PSIJ noise. Comparable performance was also achieved with embedded common-mode clocking with matched peak swings, indicating it as a potential solution for pin-constrained designs.

Precursor ISI Reduction in High-Speed I/O

To achieve multi-Gb/s data rates over backplane channels, equalization is required to compensate for the non-idealities of the channels. In this paper, we first show that with decision-feedback equalization (DFE) handling postcursor inter-symbol interference (ISI), cancelling precursor ISI with transmitter equalization degrades rather than improves performance for most channels. This is due to the interaction between equalization adaptation and clock-data recovery (CDR), coupled with transmitter peak-power constraint. To minimize the impact of precursor ISI on the bit-error-rate (BER), we propose a new method of adapting CDR phase for maximum voltage margin.

Prediction of System Performance Based on Component Jitter and Noise Budgets

Conventional ways of summing component specifications to balance voltage and timing budgets are increasingly problematic as data rates continue to scale higher for high speed links. For instance, performance degradation caused by transmitter jitter is more severe than that caused by receiver jitter due to jitter coloring by the passive channel. Furthermore, certain jitter components could interact in the system so it is inaccurate to treat them as independent variables. A system voltage and timing budgeting process hence requires a sophisticated method to accurately predict the overall system performance based on the component specifications. With the recent introduction of a statistical CAD tool, the impact of each individual component, including both deterministic and random jitter, can be co-simulated [l]-[3]. This paper demonstrates the usage of this statistical CAD tool for modeling component budgets. We verify the accuracy of our modeling approach by correlating with a FlexIOreg parallel link interface. Then, we apply the proposed methodology to a PCI Expressreg bus system to estimate the system performance based on published component jitter specification.

A 40-Gb/s serial link transceiver in 28-nm CMOS technology

A 40 Gb/s serial link interface is presented that includes four lanes of transceiver optimized for chip-to-chip communication while compensating for 20 dB of channel loss. Transmit equalization consists of a 2-tap feed-forward equalizer (FFE) while receive equalization includes a 2-tap FFE using a transversal filter, a 3-stage continuous-time linear equalizer with active feedback, and discrete-time equalizers consisting of a 17-tap decision feedback equalizer (DFE) and a 3-tap sampled FFE. The receiver uses quarter-rate double integrate-and-hold sampling. The clock and data recovery (CDR) unit uses a split-path CDR/DFE design which facilitates wider bandwidth and lower jitter simultaneously. A phase detection scheme that filters out edges affected by residual inter-symbol interference allows recovering a low-jitter clock from a partially-equalized eye. A fractional-N PLL is implemented for frequency offset tracking. Combining these techniques, the digital CDR recovers a stable 10 GHz clock from an eye containing 0.8 UI p-p input jitter and achieves 1-10 MHz of tracking bandwidth. The transceiver achieves horizontal and vertical eye openings of 0.27 UI and 120 mV, respectively, at BER = 10-9. The quad SerDes is realized in 28 nm CMOS technology. Amortizing common blocks, it occupies 0.81 mm2 per lane and achieves 23.2 mW/Gb/s power efficiency at 40 Gb/s.

Hybrid Statistical Link Simulation Technique

Accurate analysis of link performance including deterministic and random effects as well as advanced signal conditioning schemes is crucial in modern high-speed I/O design. In recent years, statistical link performance tools such as LinkLab and StatEye are introduced to efficiently analyze the overall link performance with both deterministic and random noise. The statistical-domain analysis has limitations in terms of its capability of accurately simulating system nonlinearity, jitter, as well as coding. In this paper, we present a new hybrid approach that combines statistical and time-domain techniques to efficiently overcome these limitations. The proposed method has several key contributions: 1) capture system nonlinearity; 2) separately simulate short-term deterministic jitter in the time domain and long-term deterministic and random jitter in the statistical domain; 3) co-simulate clock and data channels to capture jitter tracking; and 4) co-simulate signal and power integrity to include simultaneous switching output noise. We demonstrate this hybrid approach by studying the jitter tracking capability of a clock forwarding scheme and the effectiveness of coding in terms of system bit error rate.