A 0.13-(mu)m CMOS 5-Gb/s 10-m 28AWG cable transceiver with no-feedback-loop continuous-time post-equalizer

The frequency-dependent attenuation of the transmission lines between chips and printed circuit boards, for example, is an obstacle to improving the performance of a system enhanced with LSI technology scaling. This is because large frequency-dependent attenuation results in poor eye-opening performance and a high bit-error rate in data transmission. This paper presents a 5-Gb/s 10-m 28AWG cable transceiver fabricated by using 0.13-(mu)m CMOS technology. In this transceiver, a continuous-time post-equalizer, with recently developed nofeedback-loop high-speed analog amplifiers, can handle up to 9dB of frequency-dependent attenuation in cables and also achieve an 18-dB improvement in the attenuation (27dB total improvement) by using pre- and post-equalization techniques in combination.