This thesis presents the design, implementation, and fabrication of an analog front-end (AFE) targeting 2x blind ADC-based receivers. The front-end consists of a combination of an anti-aliasing filter (AAF) and a 2-tap feed-forward equalizer (FFE) (AAF/FFE), the required clock generation circuitry (Ck Gen), 4 time-interleaved 4-b ADCs, and DeMUX. The contributions of this design are the AAF/FFE and the Ck Gen. The overall front-end optimizes the channel/filter characteristics for data-rates of 2-10 Gb/s. The bandwidth of the AAF is scalable with the data-rate and the analog 2-tap feed-forward equalizer (FFE) is designed without the need for noise-sensitive analog delay cells. The test-chip is implemented in 65-nm CMOS and the AAF/FFE occupies 152×86 μm2 and consumes 2.4 mW at 10 Gb/s. Measured frequency responses at data-rates of 10, 5, and 2 Gb/s confirm the scalability of the front-end bandwidth. FFE achieves 11 dB of high-frequency boost at 10 Gb/s.

As demand for higher bandwidth I/O grows, the front end design of serial link becomes significant to overcome stringent timing requirements on noisy and bandwidthlimited channels. As a clock reconstructing module in a receiver, the recovered clock quality of Clock and Data Recovery is the main issue of the receiver performance. However, from unknown incoming jitter, it is difficult to optimize loop dynamics to minimize steady-state and dynamic jitter. In this thesis a 10 Gb/s adaptive loop bandwidth clock and data recovery circuit with on-chip loop filter is presented. The proposed system optimizes the loop bandwidth adaptively to minimize jitter so that it leads to an improved jitter tolerance performance. This architecture tunes the loop bandwidth by a factor of eight based on the phase information of incoming data. The resulting architecture performs as good as a maximum fixed loop bandwidth CDR while tracking high speed input jitter and as good as a minimum fixed bandwidth CDR while suppressing wide bandwidth steady-state jitter. By employing a mixed mode predictor, high updating rate loop bandwidth adaptation is achieved with low power consumption. Another relevant feature is that it integrates a typically large off-chip filter using a capacitance multiplication technique that employs dual charge pumps. The functionality of the proposed architecture has been verified through schematic and behavioral model simulations. In the simulation, the performance of jitter tolerance is confirmed that the proposed solution provides improved results and robustness to the variation of jitter profile. Its applicability to industrial standards is also verified by the jitter tolerance passing SONET OC-192 successfully.

High-speed serial data links are quickly gaining in popularity and replacing the conventional parallel data links in recent years when the data rate of communication exceeds one gigabits per second. Compared with parallel data links, serial data links are able to achieve higher data rate and longer transfer distance. This dissertation is focused on the design of CMOS integrated phase-locked loops (PLLs) and relevant building blocks used in multi-gigabits serial data link transceivers. Firstly, binary phase-locked loops (BPLLs, i.e., PLLs based on binary phase detectors) are modeled and analyzed. The steady-state behavior of BPLLs is derived with combined discrete-time and continuous-time analysis. The jitter performance characteristics of BPLLs are analyzed. Secondly, a 10 Gbps clock and data recovery (CDR) chip for SONET OC- 192, the mainstream standard for optical serial data links, is presented. The CDR is based on a novel referenceless dual-loop half-rate architecture. It includes a binary phase-locked loop based on a quad-level phase detector and a linear frequency-locked loop based on a linear frequency detector. The proposed architecture enables the CDR to achieve large locking range and small jitter generation at the same time. The prototype is implemented in 0.18 μm CMOS technology and consumes 250 mW under 1.8 V supply. The jitter generation is 0.5 ps-rms and 4.8 ps-pp. The jitter peaking and jitter tolerance performance exceeds the specifications defined by SONET OC-192 standard. Thirdly, a fully-differential divide-by-eight injection-locked frequency divider with low power dissipation is presented. The frequency divider consists of a four-stage ring of CML (current mode logic) latches. It has a maximum operating frequency of 18 GHz. The ratio of locking range over center frequency is up to 50%. The prototype chip is implemented in 0.18 μm CMOS technology and consumes 3.6 mW under 1.8 V supply. Lastly, the design and optimization techniques of fully differential charge pumps are discussed. Techniques are proposed to minimize the nonidealities associated with a fully differential charge pump, including differential mismatch, output current variation, low-speed glitches and high-speed glitches. The performance improvement brought by the techniques is verified with simulations of schematics designed in 0.35 μm CMOS technology.

Most modern clock and data recovery circuits (CDR) are based on analog blocks that need to be redesigned whenever the technology process is to be changed. On the other hand, CDR based blind oversampling architecture (BO-CDR) can be completely designed in a digital process which makes its migration very simple. The main disadvantages of the BO-CDR that are usually mentioned in a literature are complexity of its digital circuitry and finite phase resolution resulting in larger jitter sensitivity and higher error rate. This thesis will show that those problems can be solved by designing a new algorithm of BO-CDR and subsequent optimization. For this task an FPGA was selected as simulation and verification platform. This enables to change parameters of the optimized circuit in real time while measuring on real links (unlike a simulation using inaccurate link models). The output of this optimization is a new BO-CDR algorithm with heavily reduced complexity and very low error rate. A new FPGA-based method of jitter measurement was developed (primary for CDR analysis), which enables a quick link characterization without using probing or additional equipment. The new method requires only a minimum usage of FPGA resources. Finally, new measurement equipment was developed to measure bit error distribution on FSO links to be able to develop a suitable error correction scheme based on ARQ protocol.

Les circuits de récupération d'horloge et de données sont nécessaires au bon fonctionnement de plusieurs systèmes de communication sans fil. Les travaux effectués dans le cadre de cette thèse concernent le développement de ces circuits avec d'une part la réalisation, en technologie HCMOS9 0,13 μm de STMICROELECTRONICS, de circuits CDR analogiques à 1 et 54 Mbit/s, et d'autre part, la mise en œuvre de fonctions CDR numériques programmables à bas débit. Un circuit CDR fonctionnant à plus bas débit (1 Mbit/s) a été conçu dans le cadre de la gestion d'énergie d'un récepteur ULB impulsionnel non cohérent. Ces deux structures ont été réalisées à l'aide de PLL analogiques du 3ème ordre. Un comparateur de phase adapté aux impulsions issues du détecteur d'énergie a été proposé dans cette étude. Les circuits ont ensuite été dimensionnés dans le but d'obtenir de très bonnes performances en termes de jitter et de consommation. En particulier, les performances mesurées (sous pointes) du circuit CDR à 1 Mbit/s permettent d'envisager une gestion d'énergie efficace (réduction de plus de 97% de la consommation du récepteur). Dans le cadre d'une chaîne de télémesure avion vers sol, deux circuits CDR numériques ont également été réalisés durant cette thèse. Une PLL numérique du second degré a été implémentée en vue de fournir des données et une horloge synchrone de celles-ci afin de piloter une chaîne SOQPSK entièrement numérique. Un circuit ELGS a également mis au point pour fonctionner au sein d'un récepteur PCM/FM. / Clock and data recovery circuits are required in many wireless communication systems. This thesis is about development of such circuits with: firstly, the realization, in HCMOS9 0.13 μm of STMICROELECTRONICS technology, of 1 and 54 Mb/s analog CDR circuits, and secondly, the implementation of programmable digital circuits at low rates. In the aim of an impulse UWB transceiver dealing with video transmission, a CDR circuit at 54 Mb/s rate has been realized to provide clock signal synchronously with narrow pulses (their duration is about a few nanoseconds) from the energy detector. Another CDR circuit has been built at 1 Mb/s rate in a non-coherent IR- UWB receiver power management context. Both circuits have been implemented as 3rd order analog PLL. In this work, a phase comparator suitable for “RZ low duty cycle” data from the energy detector has been proposed. Circuits have been sized to obtain very good performances in terms of jitter and power consumption. Particularly, measured performances of the 1 Mb/s CDR circuit allow to plan an efficient power management (a decrease of more than 97% of the receiver total power consumption). In the context of a telemetry system from aircraft to ground, two digital CDR circuits have also been implemented. A second order digital PLL has been adopted in order to provide synchronous clock and data to an SOQPSK digital transmitter. Also, a digital ELGS circuit has been proposed to work in a PCM/FM receiver. For both CDR structures, the input signal rate is programmable and varies globally from 1 to 30 Mb/s.