A 25 Gb/s 470 μW active inductor equalizer for ground referenced signaling receivers

High speed chip-to-chip communication links suffer from attenuation and inter-symbol interference (ISI) causing channels to behave like transmission lines. Typical equalizer structures are digitally-controlled FIR filters that consume tens of milliwatts in power. This paper presents the design and simulation results of an active inductor equalizer for ground referenced signaling (GRS) receivers. Providing a tunable complex pole to the receiver transfer function allows for ISI cancellation with little power overhead. The proposed system equalizes at 25 Gb/s and consumes 470 μW. Compared to previous work, this system achieves a reduction in FOM between 48× and 218× in mW per Gb/s.