A strategy for reducing clock noise in mixed-signal circuits

Digital switching noise is of major concern in mixed-signal circuits due to the coupling of the noise via a shared substrate to the analog circuits. A significant noise source in this context is the digital clock network that generally has a high switching activity. There is a large capacitive coupling between the clock network and the substrate. Switching of the clock produces current peaks causing simultaneous switching noise (SSN). Sharp clock edges yields a high frequency content of the clock signal and a large SSN. High frequency noise is less attenuated through the substrate than low frequencies due to the parasitic inductance of the interconnect from on-chip to off-chip. In this work, we present a strategy that targets the problems with clock noise. The approach is to generate a clock with smooth edges, i.e. reducing both the high frequency components of the clock signal and the current peaks produced in the power supply. We use a special digital D flip-flop circuit that operates well with the clock. A test chip has been designed where we can control the rise and fall time of the clock edges in a digital FIR filter, and measure the performance of a fifth-order analog active-RC filter.