Speed of Light

EECS240 – Spring 2009 • Why is a link (i.e., off-chip I/O) different than on-
chip wires?
• Both send info back and forth
Lecture 18: High-Speed Link Overview

• Usually model on-chip wires with capacitor

• Sometimes with resistance too

• On-chip model works because dimensions << λ

Elad Alon • Not true for off-chip wires…

Dept. of EECS

EECS240 Lecture 17 4

Links are everywhere… Transmission Lines

• Wire model when can’t ignore c:

• Properties:
• Delay
• Characteristic impedance
• Energy stored in E, B fields

EECS240 Lecture 17 2 EECS240 Lecture 17 5

Basic Link Issues Termination and Reflection

• Signaling: getting bits from the TX to the RX • Two constraints at any junction:
• Voltage are equal
• Power is conserved

• Timing: determining which bit is which

EECS240 Lecture 17 3 EECS240 Lecture 17 6

 Loss Noise and BER

• RX circuits always have noise

• If noise is ever larger than the input signal (at sampling
point), RX will decode the bit incorrectly
• Real T-lines have loss too:
• Skin loss α √f • BER = Bit Error Rate
• Dielectric loss α f • I.e., average # of incorrectly received bits / total
transmitted bits
EECS240 Lecture 17 7 EECS240 Lecture 17 10

Not Just Material Issues… Min. Signal Amplitude

clk

• Min. signal set by noise σ and residual offset:

⎛ Vin ,ampl − Voff ⎞
BER = 12 erfc ⎜ ⎟⎟
• Energy splits at via ⎜ 2σ noise
⎝ ⎠

• Via stub looks like a capacitor – reflections • BER = 10-12: (Vin,ampl – Voff) = 7σn
• BER = 10-20: (Vin,ampl – Voff) = 9.25σn
EECS240 Lecture 17 8 EECS240 Lecture 17 11

Example Channels So What?

0
• Why not just hit the RX with a larger signal?
• 20-30dB loss at 3GHz
Attenuation [dB]

• (Not a stupid question – this is often what people do)

-10 9" FR4

-20
• How bad is that? • Simple (hand-wavy) answers:
-30 26" FR4
• Transmission line Z usually low (~50Ω)
-40
• Two related issues: 9" FR4,
• 1V swing Æ 20mW
• (1) Noise and min.
-50 via stub • Larger swing doesn’t help with ISI…
signal amplitude -60 26" FR4, • More next lecture
via stub
• (2) Intersymbol
0 2 4 6 8 10
interference frequency [GHz] • Bottom line:
• If can use lower swing, can get lower power
• Good application of EE240 material!
EECS240 Lecture 17 9 EECS240 Lecture 17 12
Link Circuits: “Current-Mode” TX Front-end Amp Gain
• Often use differential signaling/circuits to reject
supply/CM noise:

EECS240 Lecture 17 13 EECS240 Lecture 17 16

Receiver Termination Options Front-end Amp Bandwidth

EECS240 Lecture 17 14 EECS240 Lecture 17 17

Basic Receiver

EECS240 Lecture 17 15