High Speed Interconnects: Signaling and Synchronization

I.Transmission linesa) Lossless/lossy transmission lines.b) S-parameters, impedance matching.c) Pulse propagation in transmission lines.d) Even mode, odd mode (coupled/differential transmission lines).II. Clocking in serial linksa) Asynchronous vs. synchronous links (serial links with low transfer rates).b) Plesiochronous vs. Mesochronous systems.c) Overview of high-speed serializers and deserializers.III. Eye diagrams and BER estimation (based on eye quality factor).IV. Phase-locked loops (PLLs) and delay locked loops (DLLs)a) Building blocks.b) Loop analysis.c) A brief overview of non-idealities in the PLLs/DLLs.d) Jitter and phase noise (and relationship between them).e) Jitter transfer functions in DLLs and PLLs.f) BER estimation based on jitter.V. Clock and data recovery (CDR) / deserializersa) Phase detectors (linear/non-linear, full-rate/n th -rate etc.) and some examples.b) Basic circuit level blocks: Latches, flip-flops, XOR gates, muxes etc. in Current Mode Logic(CML).c) Circuit level bandwidth enhancement techniques.d) Tunable delays using tunable delay cells and phase interpolators.e) Voltage controlled oscillators (VCOs).f) Multi-phase clock generation.g) CDR architecturesVI. Equalization and equalizersa) Channel model and inter-symbol-interference (ISI).b) Pre-cursor and post-cursor ISI.c) Analog domain equalizersi.CTLE (continuous time linear equalizers).ii.FFE (feed-forward equalizers).iii.Non-linear equalizers (decision-feedback equalizers).d) Equalization in the digital domain.e) Equalizer training and blind equalization techniques.f) Eye monitor circuits for equalizers.VII. Transmitters and serializersa) Block diagram of a serializer.b) LVDS (low-voltage differential signaling) and impedance matching.c) Pre-emphasis (FIR) equalization for transmitters.VIII.IX.Other topicsa) Achieving higher-speeds using m-PAM signaling.b) Line coding with examples (such as 8b-10b, 64b-66b).c) Multi-lane serial links and current trends.Introduction to high-speed optical interconnectsa) Building blocks used in optical interconnects (such as lasers, modulators, detectors)b) Impairments in the optical fiber channel.c) Signaling techniques used in high-speed optical interconnects (coherent vs. directmodulation & detection).