ECEN720: High-Speed Links

Circuits and Systems

Spring 2013

Lecture 10: Jitter

Sam Palermo
Analog & Mixed-Signal Center
Texas A&M University
Agenda
• Jitter Definitions
• Jitter Categories
• Dual Dirac Jitter Model
• System Jitter Budgeting
• Reference Material
• Jitter application notes posted on website
• Majority of today’s material from Hall reference

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 Eye Diagram and Spec Mask
• Links must have margin in both the voltage AND
timing domain for proper operation
• For independent design (interoperability) of TX
and RX, a spec eye mask is used
Eye at RX
sampler

RX clock timing noise [Hall]

or jitter (random noise
only here)
3
Jitter Definitions
• Jitter can be defined as “the short-term variation
of a signal with respect to its ideal position in time”
• Jitter measurements
• Period Jitter (JPER)
• Time difference between measured period and ideal period
• Cycle to Cycle Jitter (JCC)
• Time difference between two adjacent clock periods
• Important for budgeting on-chip digital circuits cycle time
• Accumulated Jitter (JAC)
• Time difference between measured clock and ideal trigger clock
• Jitter measurement most relative to high-speed link systems

4
Jitter Statistical Parameters
• Mean Value
• Can be interpreted as a fixed timing offset or “skew”
• Generally not important, as usually can corrected for
• RMS Jitter
• Useful for characterizing random component of jitter
• Peak-to-Peak Jitter
• Function of both deterministic (bounded) and random
(unbounded) jitter components
• Must be quoted at a given BER to account for random
(unbounded) jitter

5
Jitter Calculation Examples

n 1 2 3 4 Mean RMS PP
JPER -0.06 0.02 -0.06 0.12 0.005 0.085 0.18
JCC 0.08 -0.08 0.18 - 0.06 0.131 0.26
JAC -0.07 -0.05 -0.11 0.01 -0.055 0.05 0.12

JPER = time difference between measured period and ideal period

JCC = time difference between two adjacent clock periods
JAC = time difference between measured clock and ideal trigger clock
6
Jitter Histogram
Threshold (Zero)
Crossing Time
High and Low Signal Voltage Distribution
Distribution at Time t

[Hall]

0 t UI
• Used to extract the jitter PDF
• Consists of both deterministic and random components
• Need to decompose these components to accurately estimate
jitter at a given BER 7
Jitter Categories

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Random Jitter (RJ)
• Unbounded and modeled with a gaussian distribution
• Assumed to have zero mean value
• Characterized by the rms value, σRJ
• Peak-to-peak value must be quoted at a given BER
• Originates from device noise
• Thermal, shot, flicker noise
−t 2

RJ (t ) =
1 2σ RJ
2
e
2π σ RJ

9
Deterministic Jitter (DJ)
• Bounded with a peak-to-peak value that can be predicted
• Caused by transmission-line losses, duty-cycle distortion, spread-
spectrum clocking, crosstalk
• Categories
• Sinusoidal Jitter (SJ or PJ)
• Data Dependent Jitter (DDJ)
• Intersymbol Interference (ISI)
• Duty Cycle Distortion (DCD)
• Bounded Uncoirrelated Jitter (BUJ)

10
Sinusoidal or Periodic Jitter (SJ or PJ)
• Repeats at a fixed frequency due to modulating effects
• Spread spectrum clocking
• PLL reference clock feedthrough
• Can be decomposed into a Fourier series of sinusoids
SJ (t ) = ∑ Ai cos(ωi t + θ i )
i

• The jitter produced by an individual sinusoid is

 1
 A> t
PDFSJ (t ) = π A2 − t 2
 0 A≤ t


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Data Dependent Jitter (DDJ)
• Data dependent jitter is correlated with
either the transmitted data pattern or
aggressor (crosstalk) data patterns
• Caused by phenomena such as phase
errors in serialization clocks, channel
filtering, and crosstalk
• Categories
• Duty Cycle Distortion (DCD)
• Intersymbol Interference (ISI)
• Bounded Uncorrelated Jitter (BUJ)
12
Duty Cycle Distortion (DCD)
• Caused by duty cycle errors in TX serialization
clocks and rise/fall delay mismatches in post-
serialization buffers
• Resultant PDF from a peak-to-peak duty cycle
distortion (αDCD) is the sum of two delta functions
1   α DCD   α DCD 
PDFDCD (t ) = δ t −  + δ t + 
2  2   2 

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Intersymbol Interference (ISI)
• Caused by channel loss, dispersion, and reflections
• Equalization can improve ISI jitter

No Equalization

2-tap
TX Equalization

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Bounded Uncorrelated Jitter (BUJ)
• Not aligned in time with the data stream
• Most common source is crosstalk
• Classified as uncorrelated due to being
correlated to the aggressor signals and not
the victim signal or data stream
• While uncorrelated, still a bounded source
with a quantifiable peak-to-peak value

15
Total Jitter (TJ)
• The total jitter PDF is produced by
convolving the random and deterministic
jitter PDFs
PDFJT (t ) = PDFRJ (t )* PDFDJ (t )
where PDFDJ (t ) = PDFSJ (t )* PDFDCD (t )* PDFISI (t )* PDFBUJ (t )

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Jitter and Bit Error Rate
• Jitter consists of both
deterministic and random
components

• Total jitter must be quoted at

a given BER
• At BER=10-12, jitter ~1675ps
and eye width margin ~200ps
• System can potentially achieve
BER=10-18 before being jitter
limited

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 Dual Dirac Jitter Model
• For system-level jitter budgets, the dual Dirac model
approximates the complex total jitter PDF and allows for the
budgeting of deterministic and random jitter components

−t 2

RJ (t ) =
1 2σ RJ
2
e
2π σ RJ

δ (t − DJ δδ / 2 ) δ (t + DJ δδ / 2 )
DJ (t ) = +
2 2

 − t − 2DJσ δδ2 / 2 −
t + DJ δδ / 2

JT (t ) = RJ (t )* DJ (t ) =
1 2σ RJ
2
e RJ
+e 
2 2π σ RJ  

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Dual Dirac Jitter Model
• Jitter at a given BER is computed considering
both leading and trailing edges

Dominant Terms
t
  t − DJ δδ / 2   t + DJ δδ / 2    UI − t − DJ δδ / 2   UI − t + DJ δδ / 2 
BERlead (t ) = 0.5erfc  + erfc
 
 , BERtrail (t ) = 0.5erfc
 
 + erfc
 


  2σ RJ   2σ RJ    2σ RJ   2σ RJ 
∞
where erfc(t ) =
2
∫ e dx
−x
2

π t
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 Dual Dirac Jitter Model Example
• Plot measured jitter
PDF vs Q-scale
 BER 
QBER (BER ) = 2erf −1 1 − 
 ρ T 

where ρ T is the transition density, typically 0.5

• Tails are used to

extract σRJ
• Extrapolate to Q(0) to
extract separation of
dual-Dirac delta DJ δδ = Extracted seperation of dual - Dirac delta functions

DJ pp = Actual deterministic jitter peak - to - peak value

functions
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Dual Dirac Jitter Model Example

1  − t − 2DJσ δδ2 / 2 −
t + DJ δδ / 2

+ e 2σ RJ 
2
Dual - Dirac PDF == e RJ

2 2π σ RJ  

• Extracted dual Dirac model matches well with

measured jitter PDF
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System Jitter Budget
• For a system to achieve a minimum BER performance
UI ≥ DJ δδ (sys ) + QBERσ RMS (sys )

• The convolution of the individual deterministic jitter

components is approximated by linear addition of the terms
DJ δδ (sys ) = ∑ DJ δδ (i )
i

• The convolution of the individual random jitter components

results in a root-sum-of-squares system rms value

σ RMS (sys ) = ∑ RMS (i )

σ 2

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Jitter Budget Example – PCI Express System

Architecture

Jitter Model

[Hall]

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Jitter Budget Example – PCI Express System
DJ δδ (sys ) = DJ δδ (TX ) + DJ δδ (channel ) + DJ δδ (RX ) + DJ δδ (clock )

σ RMS (sys ) = σ RMS

2
(TX ) + σ RMS
2
(channel ) + σ RMS
2
(RX ) + σ RMS
2
(clock )

160

6.15 * 14.069 =
[Hall]

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Next Time
• Clocking Architectures

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