Near speed-of-light on-chip interconnects using pulsed current-mode signalling

In this paper, we describe the design of on-chip repeaterless interconnects with nearly speed-of-light latency. Sharp current-pulse data transmission is used to modulate transmitter energy to higher frequencies, where the effect of wire inductance is maximized, allowing the on-chip wires to function as transmission lines with considerably reduced dispersion. A prototype 8 Gbps serial link employing this pulsed current-mode signalling in a 0.18 μm CMOS process is described and measured.