A Novel Low Gate-Count Pipeline Topology With Multiplexer-Flip-Flops for Serial Link

This paper proposes multiplexer-flip-flops (MUX-FFs) to be a high-throughput and low-cost solution for serial link transmitters. We also propose multiplexer-latches (MUX-Latches) that possess the logic function of combinational circuits and storing capacity of sequential circuits. Adopting the pipeline with MUX-FFs, which are composed of cascaded latches and MUX-Latches, many latch gates for sequencing can be removed. Analysis and simulation results show that an 8-to-1 serializer in the pipeline topology with MUX-FFs reduces 52% gate-count compared to that in the traditional pipeline topology. To verify the functions of the proposed design, two chips are implemented with the proposed 4-to-1 MUX-FF and 8-to-1 serializer with MUX-FFs in 90 nm CMOS technology. The measured results show that the MUX-FF and the proposed serializer with MUX-FFs are almost bit-error-free (with BER <; 10^-12 ), operating at up to 6 Gbits/s and 12 Gbit/s, respectively.