AN 835: PAM4 Signaling Fundamentals

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ID 683852
Date 3/12/2019
Public
Document Table of Contents
Document Table of Contents x
1. Introduction 2. CEI-56G-MR Transmitter 3. CEI-56G-MR-PAM4 Interface Details 4. CEI-56G-MR-PAM4 Receiver 5. PAM4 Link Case Study 6. Medium Reach (MR) PAM4 System Design Study 7. Glossary and Acronyms 8. References 9. Document Revision History for AN 835: PAM4 Signaling Fundamentals
1. Introduction x
1.1. NRZ Fundamentals 1.2. Standards Using PAM4 Coding Scheme 1.3. CEI-56G Interconnect Reaches and Application Distances
1.3. CEI-56G Interconnect Reaches and Application Distances x
1.3.1. VSR (Very Short Reach) Chip-to-Module 1.3.2. MR (Mid-Range Reach) - Chip to Chip Within a PCBA 1.3.3. LR (Long Reach) - Chip to Chip Across a Backplane/Midplane or a Cable
2. CEI-56G-MR Transmitter x
2.1. Naming Conventions 2.2. Eye Height (EH6) and Eye Width (EW6) 2.3. Eye Linearity 2.4. Electrical Characteristics 2.5. PAM4 Jitter Methodology 2.6. TX Pre-Emphasis Method
2.4. Electrical Characteristics x
2.4.1. Transmitter Characteristics 2.4.2. Transmitter Return Loss 2.4.3. Transmitter Linearity (RLM) 2.4.4. Signal-to-Noise-and-Distortion Ratio (SNDR)
3. CEI-56G-MR-PAM4 Interface Details x
3.1. COM Introduction 3.2. Normative Channel Specification COM 3.3. Informative Channel Insertion Loss 3.4. Informative Channel Return Loss
3.1. COM Introduction x
3.1.1. Backplane Measurements
4. CEI-56G-MR-PAM4 Receiver x
4.1. Challenges in Analyzing PAM4 Signals 4.2. PAM4 Receiver Architecture 4.3. Equalization Technique 4.4. CEI-56G-MR-PAM4 Receiver Details
4.2. PAM4 Receiver Architecture x
4.2.1. Analog vs. Digital Receiver 4.2.2. Slicer 4.2.3. Clock and Data Recovery (CDR)
4.4. CEI-56G-MR-PAM4 Receiver Details x
4.4.1. Electrical Characteristics 4.4.2. Receiver Input Return Loss 4.4.3. Receiver Interference Tolerance 4.4.4. Receiver Jitter Tolerance
5. PAM4 Link Case Study x
5.1. OIF_Stressed 5.2. OIF_Compliant
5.1. OIF_Stressed x
5.1.1. Channel Characteristics 5.1.2. OIF_Stressed PAM4 Link Simulation with the Advanced Link Analyzer
5.2. OIF_Compliant x
5.2.1. Channel Characteristics 5.2.2. OIF_Compliant PAM4 Link Simulation with the Advanced Link Analyzer
6. Medium Reach (MR) PAM4 System Design Study x
6.1. System Power 6.2. System Cost 6.3. Board Space 6.4. Conclusion
1. Introduction
2. CEI-56G-MR Transmitter
3. CEI-56G-MR-PAM4 Interface Details
4. CEI-56G-MR-PAM4 Receiver
5. PAM4 Link Case Study
6. Medium Reach (MR) PAM4 System Design Study
7. Glossary and Acronyms
8. References
9. Document Revision History for AN 835: PAM4 Signaling Fundamentals

2.1. Naming Conventions

PAM4 uses four voltage levels to represent four combinations of 2 bits logic: 11, 10, 01, and 00. Every two bits are mapped to one symbol. The mapping method can be linear coding or gray coding (see the following table for more details). All PAM4 standards support gray coding.

Table 4.  Linear and Gray Coding
Linear Coding Gray Coding
11 10
10 11
01 01
00 00

Instead of one eye in the NRZ coding scheme, there are three eyes in PAM4 because of the four voltage levels. The naming conventions represent these four voltage levels: -3, -1, 1, 3 or -1, -1/3, 1/3, 1 or 0, 1, 2, 3.

Figure 9. Three PAM4 Signal Levels Naming Conventions
Level Two Title