A 10-Gbps CTLE Design Using Split-Length Input Pair MOS Transistors

The equaliser is an indispensable block inside the receiver in Serial Link systems. It is used to moderate the high-frequency loss of the signal in the channel. A new technique is described to improve the performance of the Continuous-Time Linear Equaliser (CTLE). This technique utilises split-length device (SLD) in order to boost the output impedance of the SLD. The proposed CTLE is designed and simulated in 65 nm CMOS technology. Post-layout simulation results demonstrate that the proposed technique has more peaking than conventional CTLE by an order of 1.5 dB at Nyquist frequency. The Proposed design has a vertical eye-opening of 220 mV and a horizontal eye-opening of 0.35 UI. It consumes 1.56 mW from a 1.2 V supply. A FoM of 13.1 fJ/bit/dB is achieved.