An 8Gbps 2.5mW on-chip pulsed-current-mode transmission line interconnect with a stacked-switch Tx

This paper proposes a high energy-efficient pulsed-current-mode transmission line interconnect (PTLI) for on-chip networks. The stacked-switch transmitter (Tx) is introduced for saving a static power of Tx. Point-to-point and multi-drop PTLIs are demonstrated, and simulation results show that the 5-mm-long PTLI with six Txs and six receivers (Rxs) can achieve multi-drop signaling. The point-to-point PTLI with a 5-mm-long transmission line is fabricated by using 90 nm Si CMOS process and can transmit 8 Gbps signals with power consumption of 2.5 mW and a delay of 164 ps.