Inductively Coupled Interconnect for Chip to Chip Communication over Transmission Line

Abstract

As data frequency increases beyond several Gbps range, low power chip to chip communication becomes more critical. The concept researched in this thesis is inductively coupled interconnect (LCI) over short length transmission line. The data will be transmitted across a 10 cm differential microstrip line on FR-4 material with a transformer on each side of the line. The transmitter and receiver circuits are designed in TSMC 0.18μm process technology and can operate at 2.5 Gbps. The power consumption of the design is 5.53 mW at 2.5 Gbps which yields around 2.21 mW.Gb-1.s-1. This design can achieve BER of less than 10-12. The inductive coupling will reduce DC power because the low frequency DC component of the signal will be blocked by coupling inductors. The power consumed by this design is lower than most of the conventional I/Os that use physical contact interconnects. An H-bridge current steering driver is used at the transmitter and a differential amplifier and Sense-amp Flip flop is used at the receiver.