Technologies Available for License

2022-005: A User-Configurable High-Speed Line Driver

Invention: 2022-005

Patent Status: Provisional filed on January 6, 2022

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Summary

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Top-level block diagram of the adaptive line driver circuit.

Existing transmitter designs for integrated high-speed wired links (known as line drivers) are application specific. As a result, they require system-wide redesign by a designer before they can be used for links with different cable parameters and/or data rates. Brookhaven researchers provided an improved high-speed line-driver circuit that uses a built-in delay-locked loop (DLL) to allow the duration of each pre-emphasis interval to be adaptively programmed. As a result, a much wider range of output waveforms with pre symbol or post-symbol boosting can be generated. In turn, such flexibility would allow for the users to optimize the driver parameters on-the-fly to handle a variety of application scenarios and/or in the presence of process, voltage, and temperature (PVT) variations.

Description

The adaptive line driver circuit includes a delay-locked loop (DLL) circuit, which includes a phase detector (PD) circuit, charge pump (CP) circuit, and voltage-controlled delay line (VCDL) circuit operatively coupled together. The delay-locked loop circuit provides user-configurable durations of pre-emphasis and feed-forward equalization of the signal. The delay locked loop circuit also provides a user-configurable parameter including at least one of pre-data tap amplitude, data tap amplitude, post-data tap amplitude, pre-data tap duration, post-data tap duration, pre-data tap quantity, and post-data tap quantity. The adaptive line driver circuit further includes an array of source-series terminated (SST) driver circuits operatively coupled to the delay-locked loop circuit and used to drive respective data taps. These arrays can also be programmed by the user to configure nominal and pre-emphasized data swing.

Journal Publication & Intellectual Property

• US 2023/0231746 A1 (.pdf)
• A low-power 1 Gb/s line driver with configurable pre-emphasis for lossy transmission lines (.pdf)