ECE 621

Signaling & Synchronization

Fall 2017
Topic 2
I/O Channel Characteristics

Sameh A. Ibrahim
Ain Shams University
ICL
(Courtesy of S. Pamarti – UCLA, S. Palermo – TAMU,
E. Alon – UCB, and W. Dally – Stanford)
 Outline
 Channel Components
▪ Wires (PCB traces, Co-axial cables, twisted pairs, ..etc.)
▪ IC Packages
▪ Vias
▪ Connectors
 Channel Impairments
▪ Limited Bandwidth - Loss
▪ Reflections
▪ Cross-Talk
 Channel Representations
▪ Impulse Response
▪ S-Parameters
▪ Eye Diagram
▪ Time-Domain Reflectometry (TDR)

I/O Channel Characteristics 2

 Chip-to-Chip Communication Channels
 Short Range
▪ ICs on the same PCB
▪ The PCB could be within a multi-chip module
 Long Range
▪ ICs on different PCBs
▪ PCBs connected through another board or a co-axial
cable

I/O Channel Characteristics 3

 Channel Complexity

“Wire”
TX RX

Neglected for low data-rates, short lengths and simple architecture

Otherwise

I/O Channel Characteristics 4

 Example Wires
Cables

Coaxial Flat or Ribbon Twisted Pair Flex Circuit

PCB Traces

𝐴
Micro-strip Strip-line 𝐴𝑊𝐺 = −10 ln
𝐴0

[Dally]

I/O Channel Characteristics 5

 Wire Models
 Model Types
▪ Ideal
▪ Lumped C, R, L
▪ RC transmission line
▪ LC transmission line
▪ RLGC transmission line

 Condition for LC or RLGC model (vs RC)

𝑹
𝒇𝟎 ≥
𝟐𝝅𝑳

I/O Channel Characteristics 6

 Basic Electrical Properties of Wires
 Resistance

 Capacitance
r ri r
ro r
s
s

|| Plate + Fringing
 Inductance

I/O Channel Characteristics 7

 Wires/Cables as Transmission Lines

 Electromagnetic field propagation

 Per unit length,
▪ R, L, and C are the resistance, inductance, and
capacitance of the conductor structure
▪ G represents loss in the dielectric between the
conductors
 For a lossless transmission line, R = 0 and G = 0

I/O Channel Characteristics 8

 IC Package Types
 Package needed to
protect chips physically
and thermally.
 Packaging pin count did
not increase as on-chip
aggregate bandwidth.
▪ I/O constrained design
▪ Higher data rate per pin
 Attachment to board
▪ Through-hole

▪ Surface-mount
[Fujitsu]
I/O Channel Characteristics 9
 IC Package Model
 Bondwires
▪ L ~ 1 nH/mm
▪ Mutual inductance
▪ Ccouple ~ 20 fF/mm
 Package traces
▪ L ~ 0.7 – 1 nH/mm
▪ Mutual inductance
▪ Clayer ~ 80 – 90 fF/mm
▪ Ccouple ~ 40 fF/mm

I/O Channel Characteristics 10

 PCB Vias

 Made by drilling a hole through the board which is plated

with copper
▪ Pads connect to signal layers/traces.
▪ Clearance holes avoid power planes.
 Blind vias are better than through vias with respect to
signal integrity as they are better impedance-controlled.
I/O Channel Characteristics 11
 Coaxial-Type Vias

 Extra vias for ground connections

 Spacing used for impedance control

I/O Channel Characteristics 12

 Connectors
 Connectors are used to
transfer signals from
board to board.
 Typical differential pair
density ranges between
16 – 32 pairs/10mm.

ISA PCI

I/O Channel Characteristics 13

 Common Connectors
 Typical frequencies where attenuation gets to 1 dB.

I/O Channel Characteristics 14

 Outline
 Channel Components
▪ Wires (PCB traces, Co-axial cables, twisted pairs, ..etc.)
▪ IC Packages
▪ Vias
▪ Connectors
 Channel Impairments
▪ Limited Bandwidth - Loss
▪ Reflections
▪ Cross-Talk
 Channel Representations
▪ Impulse Response
▪ S-Parameters
▪ Eye Diagram
▪ Time-Domain Reflectometry (TDR)

I/O Channel Characteristics 15

 Channel Characteristics

 Flight time typically exceeds bit period in Gb/s

signaling
 Consider 5 Gb/s signaling over a 6΄΄ PCB trace
▪ Flight time is ~ 1ns. Bit period (1 UI) is 200 ps.
▪ In any instant, five bits traveling on the channel.
 Channel cannot be considered lumped.
 Trace is modeled as transmission line.
 Effects include signal attenuation, reflection and cross-
talk.
I/O Channel Characteristics 16
 Loss Mechanisms: Dielectric Loss (1)

 The parallel conductance causes signal attenuation.

 The loss increases with transmission wire length.

I/O Channel Characteristics 17

 Loss Mechanisms: Dielectric Loss (2)
 Loss tangent can be approximated as a constant
▪ Not true, but a reasonable approximation

 Loss increases linearly with wire length.

 Loss rolls off as 20 dB/decade (like a 1st order filter
past its bandwidth)

I/O Channel Characteristics 18

 Loss Mechanisms: Conductive Loss (1)

 Finite conductivity of the conductors causes loss.

 Again, loss increases with transmission wire length.

I/O Channel Characteristics 19

 Loss Mechanisms: Conductive Loss (2)

 Conductivity decreases at high frequencies.

▪ Called skin effect.
▪ Current flows close to the surface in a thin layer.
▪ Skin depth, 𝛿, is the depth where the current has fallen to
e-1.
▪ 𝑓𝑠 is the frequency where 𝛿 is equal to 𝑟 or ℎ/2.

I/O Channel Characteristics 20

Losses: Cable vs. PCB Trace

I/O Channel Characteristics 21

 Reflection

 Suppose T-line is terminated by 𝒁𝑻 ≠ 𝒁𝟎 .

 Forward wave will launch a backward traveling wave.
▪ Backward wave starts at 𝒁𝑻 with the following time
waveform

 The reflected current is also given by the reflection

coefficient, 𝚪
I/O Channel Characteristics 22
 Termination Examples

 The voltage drop at 𝒁𝑻 is

 If 𝒁𝑻 = 𝒁𝟎 ,
▪
▪ Like an infinitely-long TL
 If 𝒁𝑻 = 𝟎,
▪
 If 𝒁𝑻 = ∞,
▪
I/O Channel Characteristics 23
 TL Wave Reflections

 Multiple reflections are caused by the forward and

backward waves reflecting at the source and load
boundaries.
I/O Channel Characteristics 24
 Lossy TL Wave Reflections

 Loss in TLs reduce the effects of reflections

significantly
I/O Channel Characteristics 25
Numerical Example of TL Reflections

I/O Channel Characteristics 26

 Termination Schemes (1)
 No Termination
▪ Little to absorb line energy
▪ Can generate oscillating
waveform
▪ Line must be very short relative
to signal transition time (n = 4 -
6)
▪ Limited off-chip use

 Source Termination
▪ Source output takes 2 steps up
▪ Used in moderate speed point-
to-point connections
I/O Channel Characteristics 27
 Termination Schemes (2)
 Receiver Termination
▪ No reflection from receiver
▪ Watch out for intermediate
impedance discontinuities
▪ Little to absorb reflections at
driver
 Double Termination
▪ Best configuration for
minimum reflections
▪ Get half the swing relative to
single termination
▪ Most common termination
scheme for high performance
serial links I/O Channel Characteristics 28
 Sources of Reflections
 Z-Discontinuities
▪ PCB Z mismatch
▪ Connector Z mismatch
▪ Vias Z mismatch
▪ Device parasitics
 Example Via Stubs
▪ Legacy backplanes
have default straight
vias
▪ Refined backplanes
have expensive
backdrilled vias

I/O Channel Characteristics 29

 Minimizing Via Stubs
 Thinner PCBs
 Better vias
 But are expensive solutions

I/O Channel Characteristics 30

 Cross-Talk
 Noise induced by one signal that
interferes with another signal
 Capacitive coupling between on-
chip lines
 Capacitive and inductive coupling
between off-chip lines
 Coupling over shared signal
returns
 Near end cross-talk (NEXT) and
far end cross-talk (FEXT)
 Disturbances on both voltage and
current
 Can exceed signal at high
frequencies.
I/O Channel Characteristics 31
 Connectors and Cross-Talk

 Connectors have tight footprint constraints.

 Hard to match pairs.
 Big source of impedance discontinuities.
 But above all, a major source of cross-talk.

I/O Channel Characteristics 32

NEXT: To Do and Not To Do

✓
I/O Channel Characteristics 33
Everything together

I/O Channel Characteristics 34

 Outline
 Channel Components
▪ Wires (PCB traces, Co-axial cables, twisted pairs, ..etc.)
▪ IC Packages
▪ Vias
▪ Connectors
 Channel Impairments
▪ Limited Bandwidth - Loss
▪ Reflections
▪ Cross-Talk
 Channel Representations
▪ Impulse Response
▪ S-Parameters
▪ Eye Diagram
▪ Time-Domain Reflectometry (TDR)

I/O Channel Characteristics 35

 Channel Pulse Response

 TX pulse spreads in time as it travels Main-Cursor

through the channel.
 Channel’s pulse response is used in time Post-Cursors
domain simulations and link analysis.
 Many post-cursors and few pre-cursors Reflections
exist due to spreading.
 Spreading causes interference with Pre-Cursor
adjacent symbols (ISI).
I/O Channel Characteristics 36
 Inter-Symbol Interference (ISI)
 ISI is caused by channel loss (dispersion) and
reflections.
 Previous bits residual state can distort the current bit.
 ISI creates a deterministic jitter in received signal’s
zero crossings.
 Left uncompensated, ISI leads to increased BER.

I/O Channel Characteristics 37

Numerical Example

I/O Channel Characteristics 38

Channel Data Stream Response

I/O Channel Characteristics 39

 Channel S-Parameters

 S-Parameters are easy to measure.

▪ Y, Z parameters need open and short conditions.
▪ S-parameters are obtained with nominal termination.
 S11 measures reflection from channel, port 2 matched.
 S11 is known as return loss.
 S21 measures fraction of signal delivered to matched
load.
 S21 is known as insertion loss.

I/O Channel Characteristics 40

S-Parameter Channel Example (1)

I/O Channel Characteristics 41

S-Parameter Channel Example (2)

-50 dB = 0.3% at 14 Gb/s

I/O Channel Characteristics 42

 Cascading S-Parameters
 Convert to ABCD matrix and cascade.

I/O Channel Characteristics 43

Converting Between S & ABCD Parameters

I/O Channel Characteristics 44

Impulse Response and S-Parameters (1)

 Step 1: For ifft, produce

negative frequency
values and append to s-
parameter data in the
following manner

I/O Channel Characteristics 45

Impulse Response and S-Parameters (2)
 Can perform ifft now,
but will get an impulse
response with time
resolution of

 To improve response
resolution, expand
frequency axis and
“zero pad”.

I/O Channel Characteristics 46

 Impulse Response and S-Parameters (3)
 Now perform ifft to produce  Can sanity check by doing
impulse response fft on impulse response and
comparing to measured
data

I/O Channel Characteristics 47

Different Channels Examples

I/O Channel Characteristics 48

Eye Diagrams

I/O Channel Characteristics 49

Eye Diagram Basics

I/O Channel Characteristics 50

 Loss-Less vs. Lossy Channel

 Loss-less ideal channel  40΄΄ of FR4

 RX eye = TX eye  Data rate = 5 Gb/s
 Eye opening = 500 mV  Effect of attenuation only
 Clear zero crossing  Eye opening = 130 mV
 No ISI, no jitter  Zero crossing jitter = 75 ps
 Reflection and cross-talk further close the eye
I/O Channel Characteristics 51
Eye Diagrams vs. Data Rate

I/O Channel Characteristics 52

Eye Diagrams vs. Channel

I/O Channel Characteristics 53

 Attenuation and Eye Opening
 For an attenuation A, Eye
opening is reduced to
B = 2A – 1
 No eye opening at 50%
attenuation
 Significant degradation of
margins at lower levels of
attenuation

I/O Channel Characteristics 54

 Estimating the Worst-Case Eye (1)
 Can estimate worst-case eye
height and data pattern from
pulse response.

 Worst-case “1” is
summation of a “1” pulse
with all negative non k=0
pulse responses.
 Worst-case “0” is
summation of a “0” pulse
with all positive non k=0
pulse responses.
I/O Channel Characteristics 55
 Estimating the Worst-Case Eye (2)
 Worst case eye height is s1(t)-s0(t).

 If symmetric “1” and “0” pulses, then only positive

pulse response is needed.

I/O Channel Characteristics 56

Worst-Case Eye Example 1

I/O Channel Characteristics 57

Worst-Case Eye Example 2

I/O Channel Characteristics 58

 Time-Domain Reflectometer (TDR)

 TDR consists of a fast step generator and a high-speed

oscilloscope
 TDR operation
▪ Outputs fast voltage step onto channel
▪ Observe voltage at source, which include reflections
▪ Voltage magnitude can be converted to impedance
▪ Impedance discontinuity location can be determined by
delay
 Only input port access to characterize channel (vs. VNA)
I/O Channel Characteristics 59
TDR Impedance Calculation

I/O Channel Characteristics 60

 TDR Waveforms (Open & Short)
 Open termination

 Short termination

I/O Channel Characteristics 61

TDR Waveforms (Matched & Unmatched)
 Matched termination

 Unmatched termination

I/O Channel Characteristics 62

 TDR Waveforms (C & L Discontinuity)
 Shunt C discontinuity

∆𝑉 𝑉
 Series L discontinuity

 Spike depends on rise time ∆𝑉

I/O Channel Characteristics 63

 Rise-Time Degradation
 Upstream elements (Ls & Cs) low-pass the signal
resulting in a longer rise-time.
 This affects the reflections from down-stream
elements.
▪ Slow rising edge
▪ Spread out response
▪ L & C responses do not go full swing.
 This makes it
▪ Hard to extract L and C values.
▪ Impossible to measure very small discontinuities.
• But if the TDR cannot see them, neither can the signal.

I/O Channel Characteristics 64

 Extraction Procedure
 Identify regions of the TDR plot as
▪ Flat region – transmission line
▪ Bump up – inductor
▪ Bump down – capacitor
 Starting at source
▪ Determine value of Z & td, L, or C for nearest element.
▪ Simulate to validate and determine new tr.
▪ Iterate as needed to get the value right.
▪ Move on to the next element.
 There is no need for models with more resolution than
the fastest rise time.

I/O Channel Characteristics 65

Example TDR Trace

I/O Channel Characteristics 66

Same Waveform with 200 ps Edge

I/O Channel Characteristics 67

 Channel Summary
Input Output

Horizontal scale: 20 ps/div - Vertical scale: 100 mV/div

20-Gb/s PRBS7 data - 18-inch FR4 trace
 Untreated received eye is closed, or almost closed
 How can it be opened?
▪ Characterize channel & compensate for it at TX/RX.
▪ Use signaling schemes that best match channel. (NRZ)
▪ Use coding to relax constraints. (8b/10b)
 How to quantize performance?
I/O Channel Characteristics 68
 Bit-Error Rate (BER)
 System overall performance is best described by BER.
 BER = # of erroneous bits / total number of bits.
 At multiple Gb/s rates, the BER requirement for most
I/O communication standards is 10-12 or smaller.
 BER are measured using BERT.
 BERT consists of a pattern generator and error
detector.
 Pseudo random binary sequence (PRBS) is the most
common bit sequence used in BERTs to mimic a truly-
random sequence.
 PRBS are generated by linear-feedback shift registers
(LFSR).

I/O Channel Characteristics 69

Link Performance Using BERT

BERT

DUT
(TX + CH. +RX)

I/O Channel Characteristics 70

 Bathtub Curve

 Shows the BER as a function of the sampling time.

 Determines the horizontal eye opening of the eye
diagram.
 Heavily dependent on the system jitter.
 How can we predict this from the beginning?
I/O Channel Characteristics 71
 Traditional Approach
 Borrowed from computer systems
▪ Built to be “error free” (10-20)
▪ Worst-case analysis

 Voltage/Time (VT) Budget

▪ Also called link Budget
▪ Deterministic (Bounded) error sources [Cross-talk,
residual-ISI, reflections, supply and reference noise, TX
offsets, RX offsets and sensitivity] add in the same
direction.
▪ Random (Unbounded) error sources [Thermal and
flicker noise] add in rms.
▪ V & T completely separated.
I/O Channel Characteristics 72
 Traditional Voltage Budget Example
Transmitter Bounded
Noise Receiver Bounded
Noise
Crosstalk

ISI and Reflections

𝟏 𝒉
 𝑩𝑬𝑹 = 𝒆𝒓𝒇𝒄 Signal Swing 400 mV
𝟐 𝟐𝝈 Vni Rx offset + sensitivity 50 mV

 𝒉 = 𝑺𝒘𝒊𝒏𝒈 − σ 𝑫𝑵 Uncancelled PS noise 20 mV

Total Vni 70 mV
 Swing determined by residual Kn Crosstalk 10 %

ISI (worst case eye) Reflections

Total
10
20
%
%

 DN = deterministic noise KnVs 80 mV

Vn = Vni + KnVs 150 mV
 σ is obtained by rms addition.
I/O Channel Characteristics 73
 Issues with Traditional Approach
 Worst-case analysis is not realistic, especially with
large number of residual-ISI taps.
 Voltage and timing cannot be treated separately for
modern links.
 Modern approach
▪ Uses noise and ISI statistics
▪ Integrates timing noise with voltage noise
▪ Needs mapping from time to voltage

I/O Channel Characteristics 74

 Assignment 1

 Assignment is due on 17/10/17 at 6 PM.

 Use the through channel s-parameters
“channel.s4p” to provide the following plots:
▪ AC magnitude and phase (i.e., s21) from 0 Hz
to 20 GHz.
▪ Time-domain pulse response at 8 Gb/s
indicating symbol-spaced sample values.

I/O Channel Characteristics 75

 Assignment 1 (Contd.)

 The figure shown is a model for a 1-inch FR4 trace that

can be cascaded for longer traces.
 Provide the input and output eye diagram for a 6-inch
FR4 trace using an 8-Gb/s PRBS source with 0.5 Vpp
swing.
 Estimate the worst-case eye opening and compare it to
the simulated eye.

I/O Channel Characteristics 76