Power-efficient pre-emphasis method for transmitters with LVDS drivers

Abstract

A 65 nm CMOS 20 Gb/s transmitter with a low-voltage differential signalling (LVDS) driver is presented. A novel power-efficient pre-emphasis method that eliminates power wasting in conventional pre-emphasis is proposed. The input to the driver is pre-coded so that the pre-emphasis taps only inject current to the output nodes upon voltage level transition of the output signal. Current does not flow through the pre-emphasis taps when there is no transition. Simulation results show that the proposed pre-emphasis achieves the same output waveform and pre-emphasis capability as the conventional approach while consuming less power.