A 10Gbps/channel On-Chip Signaling Circuit with an Impedance-Unmatched CML Driver in 90nm CMOS Technology

Abstract

An on-chip signaling system consists of a CML driver, a differential transmission-line and a CML receiver is fabricated. We developed an impedance-unmatched driver for power reduction. The impedance-unmatched driver reduces the tail current of the CML buffer by tuning the load resistance. The designed circuit achieves 3mm, 10Gbps/channel on-chip signal transmission and the impedance-unmatched driver saves the energy per bit by 21% compared with a conventional impedance-matched driver.