Cancellation of crosstalk-induced jitter

A novel jitter equalization circuit is presented that addresses crosstalk-induced jitter in high-speed serial links. A simple model of electromagnetic coupling demonstrates the generation of crosstalk-induced jitter. The analysis highlights unique aspects of crosstalk-induced jitter that differ from far-end crosstalk. The model is used to predict the crosstalk-induced jitter in 2-PAM and 4-PAM, which is compared to measurement. Furthermore, the model suggests an equalizer that compensates for the data-induced electromagnetic coupling between adjacent links and is suitable for pre- or post-emphasis schemes. The circuits are implemented using 130-nm MOSFETs and operate at 5-10 Gb/s. The results demonstrate reduced deterministic jitter and lower bit-error rate (BER). At 10 Gb/s, the crosstalk-induced jitter equalizer opens the eye at 10^sup-12 BER from 17 to 45 ps and lowers the rms jitter from 8.7 to 6.3 ps

Modeling and Analysis of Noise and Interconnects for On-Chip Communication Link Design

This thesis considers modeling and analysis of noise and interconnects in onchip communication. Besides transistor count and speed, the capabilities of a modern design are often limited by on-chip communication links. These links typically consist of multiple interconnects that run parallel to each other for long distances between functional or memory blocks. Due to the scaling of technology, the interconnects have considerable electrical parasitics that affect their performance, power dissipation and signal integrity. Furthermore, because of electromagnetic coupling, the interconnects in the link need to be considered as an interacting group instead of as isolated signal paths. There is a need for accurate and computationally effective models in the early stages of the chip design process to assess or optimize issues affecting these interconnects. For this purpose, a set of analytical models is developed for on-chip data links in this thesis. First, a model is proposed for modeling crosstalk and intersymbol interference. The model takes into account the effects of inductance, initial states and bit sequences. Intersymbol interference is shown to affect crosstalk voltage and propagation delay depending on bus throughput and the amount of inductance. Next, a model is proposed for the switching current of a coupled bus. The model is combined with an existing model to evaluate power supply noise. The model is then applied to reduce both functional crosstalk and power supply noise caused by a bus as a trade-off with time. The proposed reduction method is shown to be effective in reducing long-range crosstalk noise. The effects of process variation on encoded signaling are then modeled. In encoded signaling, the input signals to a bus are encoded using additional signaling circuitry. The proposed model includes variation in both the signaling circuitry and in the wires to calculate the total delay variation of a bus. The model is applied to study level-encoded dual-rail and 1-of-4 signaling. In addition to regular voltage-mode and encoded voltage-mode signaling, current-mode signaling is a promising technique for global communication. A model for energy dissipation in RLC current-mode signaling is proposed in the thesis. The energy is derived separately for the driver, wire and receiver termination.Siirretty Doriast

Adaptive transient solution of nonuniform multiconductor transmission lines using wavelets

Abstract—This paper presents a highly adaptive algorithm for the transient simulation of nonuniform interconnects loaded with arbitrary nonlinear and dynamic terminations. The discretization of the governing equations is obtained through a weak formula-tion using biorthogonal wavelet bases as trial and test functions. It is shown how the multiresolution properties of wavelets lead to very sparse approximations of the voltages and currents in typical transient analyzes. A simple yet effective time–space adaptive al-gorithm capable of selecting the minimal number of unknowns at each time iteration is described. Numerical results show the high degree of adaptivity of the proposed scheme. Index Terms—Electromagnetic (EM) transient analysis, multi-conductor transmission lines (TLs), wavelet transforms. I

Design and modelling of variability tolerant on-chip communication structures for future high performance system on chip designs

The incessant technology scaling has enabled the integration of functionally complex System-on-Chip (SoC) designs with a large number of heterogeneous systems on a single chip. The processing elements on these chips are integrated through on-chip communication structures which provide the infrastructure necessary for the exchange of data and control signals, while meeting the strenuous physical and design constraints. The use of vast amounts of on chip communications will be central to future designs where variability is an inherent characteristic. For this reason, in this thesis we investigate the performance and variability tolerance of typical on-chip communication structures. Understanding of the relationship between variability and communication is paramount for the designers; i.e. to devise new methods and techniques for designing performance and power efficient communication circuits in the forefront of challenges presented by deep sub-micron (DSM) technologies. The initial part of this work investigates the impact of device variability due to Random Dopant Fluctuations (RDF) on the timing characteristics of basic communication elements. The characterization data so obtained can be used to estimate the performance and failure probability of simple links through the methodology proposed in this work. For the Statistical Static Timing Analysis (SSTA) of larger circuits, a method for accurate estimation of the probability density functions of different circuit parameters is proposed. Moreover, its significance on pipelined circuits is highlighted. Power and area are one of the most important design metrics for any integrated circuit (IC) design. This thesis emphasises the consideration of communication reliability while optimizing for power and area. A methodology has been proposed for the simultaneous optimization of performance, area, power and delay variability for a repeater inserted interconnect. Similarly for multi-bit parallel links, bandwidth driven optimizations have also been performed. Power and area efficient semi-serial links, less vulnerable to delay variations than the corresponding fully parallel links are introduced. Furthermore, due to technology scaling, the coupling noise between the link lines has become an important issue. With ever decreasing supply voltages, and the corresponding reduction in noise margins, severe challenges are introduced for performing timing verification in the presence of variability. For this reason an accurate model for crosstalk noise in an interconnection as a function of time and skew is introduced in this work. This model can be used for the identification of skew condition that gives maximum delay noise, and also for efficient design verification

Time-domain green's function-based parametric sensitivity analysis of multiconductor transmission lines

We present a new parametric macromodeling technique for lossy and dispersive multiconductor transmission lines. This technique can handle multiple design parameters, such as substrate or geometrical layout features, and provide time-domain sensitivity information for voltages and currents at the ports of the lines. It is derived from the dyadic Green's function of the 1-D wave propagation problem. The rational nature of the Green's function permits the generation of a time-domain macromodel for the computation of transient voltage and current sensitivities with respect to both electrical and physical parameters, completely avoiding similarity transformation, and it is suited to generate state-space models and synthesize equivalent circuits, which can be easily embedded into conventional SPICE-like solvers. Parametric macromodels that provide sensitivity information are well suited for design space exploration, design optimization, and crosstalk analysis. Two numerical examples validate the proposed approach in both frequency and time-domain

Characterisation of crosstalk defects in submicron CMOS VLSI interconnects

The main problem addressed in this research work is a crosstalk defect, which is defined as an unexpected signal change due to the coupling between signals or power lines. Here its characteristic under 3 proposed models is investigated to find whether such a noise could lead to real logic faults in IC systems. As a result, mathematical analysis for various bus systems was established, with 3 main factors found to determine the amount of crosstalk: i) how the input buffers are sized; ii) the physical arrangements of the tracks; and iii) the number of switching tracks involved. Minimum sizes of the width and separation lead to the highest crosstalk while increasing in the length does not contribute much variation. Higher level of crosstalk is also found in higher metal layers due mainly to the reduced capacitance to the substrate. The crosstalk is at its maximum when the track concerned is the middle track of a bus connected to a weak buffer while the other signal lines are switching. From this information, the worse-case analysis for various bus configurations is proposed for 0.7, 0.5 and 0.35 µ CMOS technologies. For most of conventional logic circuits, a crosstalk as large as about a half of the supply voltage is required if a fault is to occur. For the buffer circuits the level of crosstalk required depends very much on the transition voltage, which is in turn controlled by the sizing of its n and p MOS transistors forming the buffer. It is concluded that in general case if crosstalk can be kept to be no larger that 30% of the supply voltage the circuit can be said to be very reliable and virtually free from crosstalk fault. Finally test structures are suggested so that real measurements can be made to verify the simulation result

Computer aided analysis and simulation of complex passive integrated optical circuits

Ankara : Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering and Institute of Engineering and Sciences, Bilkent Univ., 1993.Thesis (Master's) -- Bilkent University, 1993.Includes bibliographical references.In this thesis, a method is developed for the analysis and simulation of arbitrary complex, single layer, rectilinear, passive optical interconnection circuits. The method considers dielectric waveguide type optical interconnections which can be beneficially employed at the chip-to-chip or backplane level of high performance computing circuits. In the method developed, a circuit is broken down into elementary blocks whose loss and coupling properties are known. Thus, the overall loss and noise for each connection can be calculated. A high speed algorithm based on this method has been imjjlemented. The high speed of the analysis system makes it suitable for incorporation in an iterative design system, which determines the minimum spacings I)etween the guides that result in acceptable crosstalk and noise levels.Önal, GürkanM.S

Modelling and analysis of crosstalk in scaled CMOS interconnects

The development of a general coupled RLC interconnect model for simulating scaled bus structures m VLSI is presented. Several different methods for extracting submicron resistance, inductance and capacitance parameters are documented. Realistic scaling dimensions for deep submicron design rules are derived and used within the model. Deep submicron HSPICE device models are derived through the use of constant-voltage scaling theory on existing 0.75µm and 1.0µm models to create accurate interconnect bus drivers. This complete model is then used to analyse crosstalk noise and delay effects on multiple scaling levels to determine the dependence of crosstalk on scaling level. Using this data, layout techniques and processing methods are suggested to reduce crosstalk in system