A 32 Gb/s ADC-Based PAM-4 Receiver with 2-bit/Stage SAR ADC and Partially-Unrolled DFE Conference Paper uri icon

abstract

  • 2018 IEEE. A PAM-4 ADC-based receiver employs a 32-way time-interleaved 6-bit 2-bit/stage loop-unrolled SAR ADC with a single capacitive reference DAC. Digital equalization complexity is reduced with a new PAM-4 DFE architecture that has a gate count comparable to an NRZ DFE, while simultaneously halving the critical path delay. A 3-tap FFE is embedded in the ADC using an additional non-binary DAC to improve the coverage of the 6-bit FFE coefficient space. This 3-tap embedded FFE and CTLE front-end partial equalization allows placement of the CDR's Mueller-Muller phase detector directly at the ADC output to avoid excessive loop delay. Fabricated in GP 65nm CMOS, the 32Gb/s receiver operates at a BER < 10 -11 with a 27 dB loss channel and < 10 -9 with a 30 dB loss channel without utilizing any transmit equalization. The complete ADC-based receiver achieves a power efficiency of 8.25pJ/bit, including all the front-end, ADC, and DSP power.

name of conference

  • 2018 IEEE Custom Integrated Circuits Conference (CICC)

published proceedings

  • 2018 IEEE CUSTOM INTEGRATED CIRCUITS CONFERENCE (CICC)

author list (cited authors)

  • Kiran, S., Cai, S., Luo, Y., Hoyos, S., & Palermo, S.

citation count

  • 7

complete list of authors

  • Kiran, Shiva||Cai, Shengchang||Luo, Ying||Hoyos, Sebastian||Palermo, Samuel

publication date

  • January 2018