DesignCon 2022 Schedule Builder

In the high-speed differential (HSD) interface design, the intra-pair skew becomes more critical as the link speed is ever increasing beyond 56Gbps+ signaling. The skew within a differential pair (intra-pair skew) deteriorates eye opening at the receiver and degrades the channel performance significantly in HSD signaling. However, industry lacks and accurate and stable intra-pair skew measurement methodology, which created a significant gap in interconnect testing and qualification. Also, directive and comprehensive intra-pair skew modeling is not available, the risk assessment of the skew over the channel performance cannot be well explored. In this paper, we will first start with introduction to the intra-pair skew modeling method. Then, the effective intra-pair skew (EIPS) is presented, which is directly calculated from S-parameter data as a single value without time-domain conversion.

Takeaway

We used a comprehensive frequency domain method to model and quantify the intra-pair skew for direct assessment of the skew impact on the channel performance and accurate and effective characterization.