Efficient eye-diagram determination technique of non-linearly-switching coupled-data links under power and ground fluctuation noises

Abstract

A novel eye-diagram determination technique for coupled data links driven with the non-linear drivers is proposed. The non-linear characteristics of the driver are pre-characterized for a given circuit topology using SPICE step responses. Input test vectors that constitute eye-boundaries are found. The eye-diagram is determined with the test vectors. It is shown that the proposed technique is much more efficient than that of the PRBS-based generic technique in the order of two, whereas its accuracy is similar to that of the PRBS-based SPICE simulation (less than 5% error in both eye-height and jitter). © 2014 IEEE.