A 25-50Gb/s 2.22pJ/b NRZ RX with Dual-Bank and 3-tap Speculative DFE for Microprocessor Application in 7nm FinFET CMOS

This work presents an NRZ receiver (RX) implementation for microprocessor application in 7nm FinFET CMOS technology. It covers data rate from 25 to 50Gb/s and features on-chip AC coupling to support a wide input common-mode range. The RX includes two identical banks with their own clock and data recovery (CDR) to dynamically tackle parameter drift over time. A quarter-rate 3-tap fully speculative decision feedback equalizer (DFE) opens eyes over channel with 30dB insertion loss. Current-mode logic (CML) based clock path boasts three degrees of freedom of phase adjustment and random jitter (RJ) attenuation to broaden the eyes. At 0.9V supply the energy efficiency is 2.22pJ/b with 28% eye opening (BER=10-12) at 50Gb/s with PRBS31 and channel loss of 20dB.