A 20Gb/s Embedded Clock Transceiver in 90nm CMOS

Abstract

A forwarded clock I/O link in 90nm CMOS is capable of passing data at 20Gb/s over 7-inches of FR4 with 2 sockets and packages at a power dissipation of less than 12mW/Gb/s. Passive distribution and AC coupling of the forwarded clock are used to achieve 820 fsrms of sample-time uncertainty. Nyquist rate channel losses in excess of -15dB are compensated using a combination of 4-tap transmit equalization and receiver continuous-time equalization