Comparisons between serpentine and flat spiral delay lines on transient reflection/transmission waveforms and eye diagrams

• Published in: IEEE transactions on microwave theory and techniques Vol. 54; no. 4; pp. 1379 - 1387
• Main Authors: GUO, Wei-Da, SHIUE, Guang-Hwa, LIN, Chien-Min, WU, Ruey-Beei
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY IEEE 01.04.2006; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Acoustic reflection; Applied sciences; Circuit properties; Crosstalk; Delay lines; differential delay line; Electric, optical and optoelectronic circuits; Electronics; Employment; Exact sciences and technology; eye diagram; flat spiral; laddering wave; Microwave circuits, microwave integrated circuits, microwave transmission lines, submillimeter wave circuits; Microwaves; Performance evaluation; Propagation delay; Reflection; Routing; Serpentine; signal integrity; Spirals; Time domain analysis; time-domain reflection (TDR); time-domain transmission (TDT); Voltage; Waveforms; Performance evaluation; differential delay line; Crosstalk; Eye diagram; Routing; flat spiral; Transmission time; Microwave line; time-domain transmission (TDT); Time domain method; laddering wave; Simulation; time-domain reflection (TDR); SPICE; Delay line; Differential technique; Comparative study; Signal integrity; serpentine
• ISSN: 0018-9480; 1557-9670
• DOI: 10.1109/TMTT.2002.871913

In contrast to the commonly employed single-ended delay lines, the employment of differential signaling may alleviate the occurrence of crosstalk and improve the signal integrity. This paper qualitatively investigates the time-domain reflection (TDR) and time-domain transmission (TDT) waveforms for the single-ended and differential delay lines with the serpentine and flat spiral routing schemes. A numerical formula is then proposed to quantitatively predict the voltage levels of the saturated near-end and far-end propagating crosstalk noises among the sections of differential delay lines. Signal waveforms and eye diagrams of the four basic routing schemes are obtained by HSPICE simulations, demonstrating that the combination of differential signaling and flat spiral layouts can exhibit the best delay-line performance. Furthermore, both the TDR and TDT measurements for differential delay lines are performed to validate the exactitude of proposed analyses.