Marvell Asia Pte., Ltd.

Marvell International Limited

Xin Ma

Hui Wang

Wenjie Li

Jianmin Guo

Jingjing Deng

Yihui Li

Fei Guo

Hong Xue

Changguo Shen

Pilong Gao

Xuan Zhao

Zhong Yu

Jackson Tek Kon Ding

Jacky Cheuk Yin Liu

Aspects of the disclosure provide a receiver for receiving data over a wired communication channel. The receiver includes an analog front end circuit, a pulse generation circuit and a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO). The analog front end circuit receives an analog signal carrying data over the wired communication channel, and outputs a data signal with data bit transitions between voltage levels. The pulse generation circuit generates a pulse signal in response to the data bit transitions in the data signal. The voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) generates an oscillation signal for providing sampling clocks for the data signal. The voltage-controlled oscillator aligns transitions in the oscillation signal to the pulse signal by forcing the oscillation signal to transit voltage levels in response to a pulse in the pulse signal.

Method and apparatus for clock recovery

A short-reach data link receiver includes an edge detector configured to generate a pulse on an edge of a data input, a first clock-data recovery path coupled to an output of the edge detector for recovering a clock and data from the output of the edge detector, a second clock-data recovery path coupled to the output of the edge detector for recovering the clock and data from the output of the edge detector, and a controller configured to alternate between the first and second clock-data recovery paths to recover the clock and data using one of the paths while calibrating the other path. The controller may swap the paths whenever calibration of one path is completed. That may include beginning calibration of the next path immediately after swapping of the paths. Alternatively, power consumption may be reduced by delaying calibration of the next path after swapping of the paths.

Oscillator calibration structure and method

A clock-data recovery circuit includes a variable data path delay, an injection-locked oscillator having a free-running frequency, and circuitry for adjusting at least one of the variable data path delay and the free-running frequency, including a counter configured to count repetitions of a bit value in an input data signal, and further being configured to, on occurrence of a first data pattern in the input data signal, indicative of saturation of inter-symbol interference, measure the input data signal at a first clock edge to determine a first data phase measurement value, measure the input data signal at clock centers immediately preceding and immediately following the first clock edge to determine second and third data phase measurement values, and based on first predetermined relationships among the first, second and third data phase measurement values, adjust the variable data path.

Phase and frequency control for clock-data recovery

A low-power transmitter for transmitting digital signals from an integrated chip is described herein. The transmitter includes a voltage-mode transmitter driver comprised of a plurality of driver slices, which includes an up-cell having a first resistor and a first transistor, and a down-cell having a second resistor, a second transistor, and a third transistor. A calibration circuit drives a replica circuit to a desired impedance by adjusting a first gate voltage applied to the first transistor of the replica of the up-cell and adjusting a second gate voltage applied to the third transistor of the replica of the down-cell. The calibrated first gate voltage is applied to the first transistor and to the second transistor of each of the plurality of driver slices and the calibrated second gate voltage is applied to the third transistor of each of the plurality of driver slices.

Systems and methods for calibrating impedance of a low power voltage-mode transmitter driver

Systems for calibrating impedances caused by a first component and a second component of a voltage-mode transmitter driver are described herein. The first component includes a first transistor and a first resistor connected to the first transistor, wherein the first component is connected to a voltage source and an output end of the voltage-mode transmitter driver, respectively. The second component includes a second transistor and a second resistor connected to the second transistor, wherein the second component is connected to the output end of the voltage-mode transmitter driver, and a third transistor, respectively. A first gate of the third transistor is applied with a first tunable gate voltage, and the first tunable gate voltage is configured to be tuned to calibrate a first impedance between the output end and a ground to match with a second impedance between the voltage source and the output end.

Aspects of the disclosure provide an apparatus that includes interface circuitry with a serializer/deserializer (SERDES) circuit. The interface circuitry includes a receiving circuit that receives a signal that carries a sequence of digital values. The receiving circuit includes sampler circuit and a feedback equalization circuit. The sampler circuit includes an amplifying portion and a latch portion coupled at an intermediate node. The amplifying portion varies, with an amplifying gain, an intermediate signal at the intermediate node in response to an input signal to the sampler circuit, and the latch portion generates a digital output based on the intermediate signal at the intermediate node. The feedback equalization circuit is coupled to the intermediate node to vary the intermediate signal at the intermediate node based on a previous digital output from the latch portion of the sampler circuit.

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Xin Ma