Statistical Eye and BER Analysis for PAM3 Simultaneous Switching Outputs With Non-Identical On-Chip VDD and VSS Fluctuations

Abstract

Power-supply-induced (PSI) noise generated by simultaneous switching outputs (SSO) is a critical concern in modern memory systems with numerous of I/O pins. This paper proposes a new statistical analysis method that accounts for both inter-symbol-interference (ISI) and SSO PSI noise in scenarios where there is non-identical on-chip VDD and VSS noise in a general power distribution network (PDN). The proposed method is specifically formulated for pulse amplitude modulation with a three-level (PAM3) signaling scheme. The method is rigorously validated by measurement and simulation using a dedicated test IC and PCB. The proposed statistical eye and BER analysis takes drastically less computational time compared to circuit simulations.