A Sierpinski Space-Filling Clock Tree Using Multiply-by-3 Fractal-Coupled Ring Oscillators.

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Bibliographic Details
Title: A Sierpinski Space-Filling Clock Tree Using Multiply-by-3 Fractal-Coupled Ring Oscillators.
Authors: Lin, Yi-Wei1, Hsu, Shawn S. H.1
Source: IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits. Nov2017, Vol. 52 Issue 11, p2947-2962. 16p.
Subjects: Clock distribution networks, Complementary metal oxide semiconductors, Bandpass filters
Abstract: A space-filling clock tree is presented, which takes an advantage of LC resonant clocking, to obtain a uniform phase and amplitude multiply-by-3 clock from a unique Sierpinski-coupled ring oscillator (SCRO) array. The three-stage interleaved SCROs resemble the Sierpinski triangle, and are synchronized with a common frequency to all. The SCRO further provides an aligned output phase relationship to reduce skew. The triangle clock grid with a side length of 3.2 mm is filled by a space-filling clock tree. The 3-D stacked transformers at the tree endpoints extract the third harmonic of the SCRO array oscillation and scale the voltage amplitude of the extracted clock. The transformers also perform a built-in bandpass filtering function to remove injected noise. An experimental prototype integrated in a 90-nm CMOS operates at 2.85–4.3 GHz and consumes 19.2–49 mW under 0.7–1 V supply voltages. With 300-mV added supply noise, jitter was measured as 3.4 ps (rms) and 17.7 ps (pp). The measured results reveal substantial improvements in both power and jitter from this approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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Database: Engineering Source
Description
Abstract:A space-filling clock tree is presented, which takes an advantage of LC resonant clocking, to obtain a uniform phase and amplitude multiply-by-3 clock from a unique Sierpinski-coupled ring oscillator (SCRO) array. The three-stage interleaved SCROs resemble the Sierpinski triangle, and are synchronized with a common frequency to all. The SCRO further provides an aligned output phase relationship to reduce skew. The triangle clock grid with a side length of 3.2 mm is filled by a space-filling clock tree. The 3-D stacked transformers at the tree endpoints extract the third harmonic of the SCRO array oscillation and scale the voltage amplitude of the extracted clock. The transformers also perform a built-in bandpass filtering function to remove injected noise. An experimental prototype integrated in a 90-nm CMOS operates at 2.85–4.3 GHz and consumes 19.2–49 mW under 0.7–1 V supply voltages. With 300-mV added supply noise, jitter was measured as 3.4 ps (rms) and 17.7 ps (pp). The measured results reveal substantial improvements in both power and jitter from this approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
ISSN:00189200
DOI:10.1109/JSSC.2017.2732730