6-Gbps Single-ended Receiver with Continuous-time Linear Equalizer and Self-reference Generator

Abstract

A 6-Gbps single-ended receiver with a linear equalizer and a self-reference generator is proposed for a high-speed interface with the double data rate. The proposed single-ended receiver uses a common gate amplifier to increase a voltage gain for an input signal with low voltage level. The continuous-time linear equalizer which reduces gain to the low frequencies and achieves high-frequency peaking gain is implemented in the common gate amplifier. Furthermore, a self-reference generator, which is controlled with the resolution 2.1 mV using digital averaging method, is implemented to maximize the voltage margin by removing the offset noise of the common gate amplifier. The proposed single-ended receiver is designed using a 65-nm CMOS process with 1.2-V supply and consumes the power of 15 mW at the data rate of 6 Gbps. The peaking gain in the frequency of 3 GHz of the designed equalizer is more than 5 dB compared to that in the low frequency.