A 3.1mW/Gbps 30Gbps quarter-rate triple-speculation 15-tap SC-DFE RX data path in 32nm CMOS

Abstract

This paper describes a low-power implementation of a receiver data path, consisting of the RX termination with ESD, continuous-time linear equalizer (CTLE), and a 15-tap decision feedback equalizer (DFE) running at quarter rate. While the first 3 DFE taps are implemented by speculation, the latter 12 taps use a switched-cap (SC-DFE) approach. The circuit was produced in 32nm SOI-CMOS, and was measured to receive 30Gb/s PRBS31 data at <10 -12 BER over a 36dB loss channel with an energy efficiency of 3.1mW/Gbps. © 2012 IEEE.