A 5-Gb/s Inductorless CMOS Adaptive Equalizer for PCI Express Generation II Applications

Abstract

This brief presents a 5-Gb/s adaptive equalizer that compensates for the PCI Express channel loss of 14 dB at 2.5 GHz. This equalizing filter uses low-voltage zero generators (LVZGs) to generate high-frequency gain boosting without inductors. The spectrum-balancing technique eliminates the need for a slicer. The power detector combines current steering techniques and a preamplifier circuit to enhance the voltage swing. This design consumes 17.6 mW (excluding the output buffers) at a 1.6-V supply voltage with an output swing of 560 mV (p-p). The area occupied is 0.1 (including output buffers), and the output peak-to-peak jitter is 0.28 UI. The equalizer achieves high-frequency compensation, small area, and low power consumption.