A 8 GHz silicon bipolar clock-recovery and data-regenerator IC

This contribution shows that a monolithic integrated silicon bipolar circuit can provide phase and frequency locked loop (PFLL) based clock recovery and data regeneration up to 8Gb/s. Moreover, phase and frequency detector (PFD) operation up to 15Gb/s (with an external VCO) is demonstrated. Owing to the wide tuning range of the quadrature VCO, the circuit lends itself to operation over a wide range of bit rates. Other applications of the quadrature VCO, e.g. as a synthesizer, are possible. As shown by circuit simulations, the operating frequency can be extended beyond 1OGHz, if a small unbalance between both ring oscillator stages is eliminated by minor design changes.<>