Dario Prevedelli;Luca Bergamaschi;Alessandro Acquaviva;Filippo Persia;Roberto G. Massolini
{"title":"A 0.1–26 GHz SerDes-Based Broadband White Noise Generator for Ethernet Compliance Tests","authors":"Dario Prevedelli;Luca Bergamaschi;Alessandro Acquaviva;Filippo Persia;Roberto G. Massolini","doi":"10.1109/TIM.2025.3604918","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"This study introduces a novel SerDes-based broadband noise generator developed to evaluate the robustness of wireline communication links for data center applications. The system supports high-speed transmission rates of 26 and 53 Gbaud. In accordance with Ethernet compliance tests, the generator can produce normally distributed noise with integral output power above −4.4 dBm, ensuring adequate impairment injection into the device under test (DUT). The proposed solution integrates multiple high-bandwidth transmitter (TX) output signals to develop a differential white noise generator. This approach leverages key SerDes components, including the PseudoRandom binary sequence (PRBS) generator and the finite impulse response (FIR) filter, which is configured to achieve a flat output frequency response up to 26 GHz. To ensure the normality of the output signal, the output distribution is theoretically analyzed using the central limit theorem, with results validated through time-domain measurements. The selected SerDes component is an advanced electrooptic re-timer designed to operate in a differential <inline-formula> <tex-math>$100~\\Omega $ </tex-math></inline-formula> environment. This re-timer can achieve a return loss (RL) below −10 dB across the entire operating bandwidth, ensuring minimal signal reflection and optimal performance. The noise generator, as a result, achieves an overall crest factor (CF) greater than 12 dB, indicating a high peak-to-average power ratio. Moreover, the excess noise ratio (ENR) exceeds 64 dB, highlighting the generator’s capability to produce a significant level of noise above the thermal noise floor. Thanks to FIR filter equalization, the final spectrums exhibit a competitive power density flatness within ±1.6 dB with an overall digital and analog power supply consumption of 815 mW.","PeriodicalId":13341,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement","volume":"74 ","pages":"1-9"},"PeriodicalIF":5.9000,"publicationDate":"2025-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement","FirstCategoryId":"5","ListUrlMain":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11146799/","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ENGINEERING, ELECTRICAL & ELECTRONIC","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This study introduces a novel SerDes-based broadband noise generator developed to evaluate the robustness of wireline communication links for data center applications. The system supports high-speed transmission rates of 26 and 53 Gbaud. In accordance with Ethernet compliance tests, the generator can produce normally distributed noise with integral output power above −4.4 dBm, ensuring adequate impairment injection into the device under test (DUT). The proposed solution integrates multiple high-bandwidth transmitter (TX) output signals to develop a differential white noise generator. This approach leverages key SerDes components, including the PseudoRandom binary sequence (PRBS) generator and the finite impulse response (FIR) filter, which is configured to achieve a flat output frequency response up to 26 GHz. To ensure the normality of the output signal, the output distribution is theoretically analyzed using the central limit theorem, with results validated through time-domain measurements. The selected SerDes component is an advanced electrooptic re-timer designed to operate in a differential $100~\Omega $ environment. This re-timer can achieve a return loss (RL) below −10 dB across the entire operating bandwidth, ensuring minimal signal reflection and optimal performance. The noise generator, as a result, achieves an overall crest factor (CF) greater than 12 dB, indicating a high peak-to-average power ratio. Moreover, the excess noise ratio (ENR) exceeds 64 dB, highlighting the generator’s capability to produce a significant level of noise above the thermal noise floor. Thanks to FIR filter equalization, the final spectrums exhibit a competitive power density flatness within ±1.6 dB with an overall digital and analog power supply consumption of 815 mW.
期刊介绍:
Papers are sought that address innovative solutions to the development and use of electrical and electronic instruments and equipment to measure, monitor and/or record physical phenomena for the purpose of advancing measurement science, methods, functionality and applications. The scope of these papers may encompass: (1) theory, methodology, and practice of measurement; (2) design, development and evaluation of instrumentation and measurement systems and components used in generating, acquiring, conditioning and processing signals; (3) analysis, representation, display, and preservation of the information obtained from a set of measurements; and (4) scientific and technical support to establishment and maintenance of technical standards in the field of Instrumentation and Measurement.