| Patent application number | Description | Published |
|---|
| 20090074048 | EQUALIZER SYSTEM HAVING A TUNABLE ACTIVE INDUCTOR - An linear equalizer system for a transmission channel includes an active inductor with a tunable inductance and quality factor. The active inductor includes a transconducting element. A current steering digital to analog converter controls the flow of a bias current through the transconducting element to tune the active inductor. | 03-19-2009 |
| 20090238318 | MECHANISM FOR CONSTRUCTING AN OVERSAMPLED WAVEFORM FOR A SET OF SIGNALS RECEIVED BY A RECEIVER - A mechanism is provided for constructing an oversampled waveform for a set of incoming signals received by a receiver. In one implementation, the oversampled waveform is constructed by way of cooperation between the receiver and a waveform construction mechanism (WCM). The receiver receives the incoming signals, samples a subset of the incoming signals at a time, stores the subsets of sample values into a set of registers, and subsequently provides the subsets of sample values to the WCM. The WCM in turn sorts through the subsets of sample values, organizes them into proper orders, and “stitches” them together to construct the oversampled waveform for the set of incoming signals. With proper cooperation between the receiver and the WCM, and with proper processing logic on the WCM, it is possible to construct the oversampled waveform for the incoming signals without requiring large amounts of resources on the receiver. | 09-24-2009 |
| 20090252212 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR EQUALIZING A HIGH SPEED SERIAL DATA LINK - A method and apparatus for equalizing a reflection in a reflective high speed serial link. The method involves obtaining an amplitude and delay time of a compensating pulse that is transmitted in response to a pulse transmitted on the serial link. The apparatus comprises a programmable delay element and a driver stage configured to transmit a delayed and amplitude adjusted version of a pulse transmitted on the serial link. A method for equalizing a plurality of reflections in a reflective high speed serial link. The method involves obtaining an amplitude and delay time of a first compensating pulse and an amplitude and delay time of a second compensating pulse. The method further involves transmitting the first compensating and second compensating pulses in response to a pulse transmitted on the serial link. | 10-08-2009 |
| 20090316727 | Real-Time Optimization of TX FIR Filter for High-Speed Data Communication - A feedback module is defined to receive as input a set of data sample signals and a set of reference sample signals. Each of the data and reference sample signals is generated by sampling a differential signal having been transmitted through a FIR filter. The feedback module is defined to operate a respective post cursor counter for each post cursor of the FIR filter and update the post cursor counters based on the received sets of data and reference sample signals. Also, the feedback module is defined to generate a tap weight adjustment signal for a given tap weight of the FIR filter when a magnitude of a post cursor counter corresponding to the given tap weight is greater than or equal to a threshold value. An adaptation module is defined to adapt a reference voltage used to generate the reference sample signals to a condition of the differential signal. | 12-24-2009 |
| 20100141340 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR A HIGH BANDWIDTH AMPLIFIER WITH WIDE BAND PEAKING - A two stage fully differential amplifier has been designed which works, in tandem with a TX-FIR, as a linear equalizer at low frequencies, not covered by the TX-FIR, and also acts as a linear amplifier at higher frequencies which are equalized by the TX-FIR. The amplifier as a frequency response which does not attenuate signals frequencies less than one twentieth of baud rate, creates gain peaking ion the region between one twentieth and one tenth of baud rate and maintains flat peak gain up to half of baud rate. Different aspects of the frequency response curve (such as dc gain, max gain and zero frequency) are completely programmable. Also, the differential amplifier has been designed from low power and process, voltage and temperature insensitive frequency response. | 06-10-2010 |
| 20100158177 | LOW JITTER AND HIGH BANDWIDTH CLOCK DATA RECOVERY - A method of implementing a low jitter and high bandwidth clock and data recovery (CDR) apparatus includes acquiring early, optimal, and late votes; determining which votes are allowed and weighted; disallowing votes not determined to as allowed; weighing votes, wherein votes that would make the CDR move to an extreme of a zero crossing are weighted less; and accumulating votes and adjusting a recovered clock phase based on the accumulated votes. A computer readable medium storing instructions to implement a low jitter and high bandwidth CDR apparatus, the instructions includes functionality to: acquiring early, optimal, and late votes; determining which votes are allowed and weighted; disallowing votes not determined to as allowed; weighing votes, wherein votes that would make the CDR move to an extreme of a zero crossing are weighted less; and accumulating votes and adjust recovered clock phase. | 06-24-2010 |
| 20100158182 | Method and System for Reducing Duty Cycle Distortion Amplification in Forwarded Clocks - A method and apparatus for reducing the amplification of the duty cycle distortion of high frequency clock signals when is provided. A data signal is sent to a receiver via a first channel. A clock signal is sent to the receiver via a second channel. The clock signal is filtered to substantially remove therefrom low frequency components before the clock signal is used by the receiver to recover data from the data signal. | 06-24-2010 |
| 20100177841 | Power and Area Efficient SerDes Transmitter - A system and method include a SerDes transmitter comprising a digital block operating in a digital voltage domain. The digital block can be configured to receive a first group of bits of data in parallel and store history bits from another group of data. The SerDes transmitter can further comprise an analog block operating in an analog voltage domain. The analog block can be configured to receive the first group of bits of data from the digital block, receive the history bits from the digital block, generate a plurality of combinations of bits with one or more bits from the first group of bits and zero or more bits from the history bits, align each combination of bits to a phase of a multi-phase clock; and input each combination into an output driver. | 07-15-2010 |
| 20100208855 | SYSTEM AND METHOD OF ADAPTING PRECURSOR TAP COEFFICIENT - A system and methods for recovering data from an input data signal are disclosed. The system includes a transmitter for conveying a data signal filtered by a finite impulse response (FIR) filter to a receiver via a channel. The receiver uses an adaptive algorithm to determine update signals for a pre-cursor tap coefficient of the FIR based on samples taken from the received data signal and conveys the update signals to the FIR. To generate update signals, the receiver samples the data signal at a phase estimated to correspond to a peak amplitude of a pulse response of the channel. The phase is based on a clock recovered from the data signal. The update signals increase or decrease a pre-cursor tap coefficient setting in response to determining that the phase corresponds to a point earlier or later, respectively, than the peak amplitude of the channel's pulse response. | 08-19-2010 |
| 20100238993 | AN INTEGRATED EQUALIZATION AND CDR ADAPTATION ENGINE WITH SINGLE ERROR MONITOR CIRCUIT - A data communications system and methods are disclosed. The system includes a transmitter for conveying a data signal filtered by a finite impulse response (FIR) filter to a receiver via a channel. The receiver equalizes the received data signal using a decision feedback equalizer (DFE) and the FIR. The receiver samples the data signal to determine an error signal and uses the error signal to adapt settings of a pre-cursor tap coefficient of the FIR, one or more post-cursor tap coefficients of the FIR, a phase of the recovered clock, and a coefficient of the DFE. To adapt the settings, the receiver determines the error signal based on an error sample taken from the data signal in a single clock cycle. To determine an error signal, the receiver samples the data signal at a phase estimated to correspond to a peak amplitude of a pulse response of the channel. | 09-23-2010 |
| 20110103458 | ASYMMETRIC DECISION FEEDBACK EQUALIZATION SLICING IN HIGH SPEED TRANSCEIVERS - An asymmetric DFE receiver circuit. The receiver circuit includes a voltage measuring unit configured to determine a signal voltage of a received signal, and a comparator unit configured to calculate a difference between the signal voltage and an evaluation threshold voltage and to compare the difference to the value of a midpoint voltage. The comparator unit is configured to generate a first control signal if the difference is greater than the midpoint voltage value or a second control signal if the signal voltage is less than the midpoint voltage value. The receiver includes an adjustment circuit configured to adjust the evaluation threshold voltage toward the signal voltage if the first control signal is generated and away from the signal voltage if the second control signal is generated. The rates of adjustment may vary depending upon whether the received signal is a transition bit or a non-transition bit. | 05-05-2011 |
| 20110150060 | Voltage Margin Monitoring for an ADC-Based Serializer/Deserializer in Mission Mode - Various embodiments herein include one or more of systems, methods, software, and/or data structures to determine voltage margin for a high-speed serial data link. Advantageously, the margin determination may be made during normal operation of the data link (“mission mode”) such that the performance of the data link is not affected by the voltage margin measurements. That is, the margin measurements may be performed “on line” rather than “off line.” To facilitate the voltage margin measurement, a plurality of digital samples from an analog to digital converter (ADC) may be evaluated to determine the most probable bit values (i.e., digital 1's and 0's) that are represented by the digital samples. Then, a method may be used to remove or compensate for ISI effects from one or more of the digital samples, thereby providing an accurate representation of the voltage margin present in a data link. Subsequently, the voltage margin may be periodically monitored over time to detect degradation of the data link. | 06-23-2011 |
| 20110167297 | CLOCK-DATA-RECOVERY TECHNIQUE FOR HIGH-SPEED LINKS - A receiver circuit is described. In the receiver circuit, an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) generates first samples of a data signal based on a first clock signal, and a clock-data-recovery (CDR) error-detection circuit generates second samples of the data signal based on a second clock signal. In addition, the CDR error-detection circuit estimates intersymbol interference (ISI) at a current sample in the second samples from an adjacent, subsequent sample in the second samples. Based on the second samples and the estimated ISI, a CDR circuit generates the first clock signal and the second clock signal, which involves modifying the skews of either or both of these clock signals so that the current sample is associated with a zero crossing of a pulse response of a communication channel from which the data signal was received, thereby reducing or eliminating the ISI from the adjacent, subsequent sample. | 07-07-2011 |
