Overcome signal attenuation, noise and jitter interference challenges in USB 3.0 system design

Joseph Juan, Pericom Semiconductor Corp.
EETimes (4/4/2012 3:45 PM EDT)

The highly anticipated USB 3.0 is now seeing widespread adoption across notebook, docking, PC, server and upcoming tablet, handheld and portable media devices. USB 3.0 delivers an unprecedented bandwidth, 10x that of USB 2.0, and supports full-duplex communication, or the ability to send and receive data simultaneously. It also improves Quality of Service (QoS) and overall bus power consumption thanks to advanced data error checking coupled with smart power savings from USB 3.0 link power management. More importantly, USB 3.0 is 100% backward compatible to USB 2.0 devices.

However, with all of its added benefits and features, the high-speed differential signal of USB 3.0 also introduces uncontrollable noise and jitter due to signal attenuation, causing USB 3.0 signal voltage swing to overshoot or undershoot the optimal eye opening. This distorts the quality of USB 3.0 signal eye during high-speed signal switching. USB 3.0 signal quality is gravely impacted when random or deterministic noise degrades the signal quality with crosstalk during transmitting and receiving of packet transfers between USB 3.0 hosts and peripheral devices.

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