Design and Simulate SerDes Systems

Design and simulate SerDes systems using the SerDes Designer app

High-speed electronic systems suffer from signal degradation caused by various impairments such as impedance mismatch, attenuation, and crosstalk. Using the equalization and gain modulation blocks in the SerDes Toolbox™, you can compensate for the distortions introduced by the lossy channels.

Starting with the SerDes Designer app, you can design the top-level SerDes systems and perform statistical analysis. Use the building blocks and system objects to design, configure, simulate and analyze the SerDes system including the transmitter and the receiver.

Apps

SerDes Designer	Design and analyze SerDes systems for export to Simulink, MATLAB and IBIS-AMI
S-Parameter Fitter	Convert S-Parameter network to impulse response
CTLE Fitter	Fit poles and zeros to CTLE transfer functions

Blocks

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Signal Modification

DFECDR	Decision feedback equalizer (DFE) with clock and data recovery (CDR)
CDR	Models a clock data recovery circuit
FFE	Models a feed-forward equalizer
CTLE	Models continuous time linear equalizer (CTLE)
AGC	Automatically adjusts gain to maintain output waveform amplitude
VGA	Models a variable gain amplifier
SaturatingAmplifier	Models a saturation amplifier
IBIS-AMI clock_times	Recover SerDes clock time values from custom DFECDR and CDR
PassThrough	Propagates baseband signal without modification

System Configuration

Analog Channel	Construct loss model from channel loss metric or impulse response
Configuration	Configure system wide settings in SerDes system model
Eye Diagram Scope	Display eye diagram of time-domain signal
Stimulus	Set waveform generation method and number of symbols to simulate in SerDes model

Objects

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Signal Modification

`serdes.DFECDR`	Decision feedback equalizer (DFE) with clock and data recovery (CDR)
`serdes.DFE`	Minimize intersymbol interference (ISI) at clock sampling times
`serdes.CDR`	Performs clock data recovery function
`serdes.FFE`	Models a feed-forward equalizer
`serdes.CTLE`	Continuous time linear equalizer (CTLE) or peaking filter
`serdes.AGC`	Automatically adjusts gain to maintain output waveform amplitude
`serdes.VGA`	Models a variable gain amplifier
`serdes.SaturatingAmplifier`	Models a saturating amplifier
`serdes.PassThrough`	Propagates baseband signal without modification

System Configuration

`serdes.ChannelLoss`	Create simple lossy transmission line model
`serdes.Stimulus`	Set a pseudorandom binary sequence (PRBS) pattern and number of symbols to simulate in SerDes model
`SParameterChannel`	Convert S-parameter to impulse response

Functions

`optPulseMetric`	Pulse response metric for optimization routines
`prbs`	Pseudorandom binary sequence
`impulse2step`	Step response from impulse response
`impulse2pulse`	Pulse response from impulse response
`step2impulse`	Impulse response from step response
`pulse2impulse`	Impulse response from pulse response
`pulse2stateye`	Statistical eye from pulse response
`pulse2pda`	Peak distortion analysis eye from pulse response
`pulse2wave`	Data pattern waveform from pulse response
`wave2pulse`	Pulse response from data pattern waveform

Topics

Design SerDes System and Export IBIS-AMI Model
Create and analyze a SerDes system, and export an IBIS-AMI model using the SerDes Designer app.
Clock and Data Recovery in SerDes System
Explore the behavior, control and characteristics of a first order clock data recovery (CDR).
Phase Detectors: Baud-Rate Type-A versus Bang-Bang
To successfully send and receive data between a SerDes transmitter and receiver requires a myriad of conditions to be satisfied.
Statistical Analysis in SerDes Systems
Customize and explore the statistical analysis of SerDes systems.
Jitter Analysis in SerDes Systems
Inject Jitter into link analysis and equalization design.
Analog Channel Loss in SerDes System
Define the loss model to represent the analog channel in a SerDes system.
Linux Version Compatibilities
Generate shared objects on compatible Linux versions.

Featured Examples

Convert Scattering Parameter to Impulse Response for SerDes System

Find an Impulse Response by combining a Scattering-Parameter (S-Parameter) model of a baseband communication channel along with a transmitter and receiver represented by their analog characteristic impedance values. You will see how to find an Impulse Response of this network using the sParameterFitter app to create an SParameterChannel (hyperlink to sParameterChannel in doc) object in SerDes Toolbox™, which also uses some supporting functions from RF Toolbox™ such as rational and impulse.

Open Live Script

Find Zeros, Poles, and Gains for CTLE from Transfer Function

Use the CTLE Fitter app to configure a CTLE block from SerDes Toolbox™ in the SerDes Designer app or in Simulink®. You can use the CTLE Fitter app to fit zeros, poles, and gains from a transfer function to create a GPZ Matrix and then export to your workspace. The CTLE Fitter app finds the GPZ Matrix by performing a fit comparison to a transfer function using the rational function from RF Toolbox™.

Open Live Script

Globally Adapt Receiver Components Using Pulse Response Metrics to Improve SerDes Performance

Perform optimization of a set of receiver components as a system using function optPulseMetric to calculate metrics such as eye height, width and channel operating margin (COM) estimate from a pulse response at a target bit error rate (BER) to evaluate the optimal performance of a particular configuration. The adaptation is performed as statistical analysis (Init), then the optimized result is passed to time-domain (GetWave).

Open Live Script

Globally Adapt Receiver Components in Time Domain

Perform optimization of a set of receiver components as a system during Time Domain (GetWave) Simulation. You will see how to setup a CTLE and a DFECDR Block so their settings adapt together globally during simulation. This is a follow on to the example "Globally Adapt Receiver Components Using Pulse Response Metrics to Improve SerDes Performance."

Open Live Script

Model Clock Recovery Loops in SerDes Toolbox

Create detailed models of different types of serial channel clock recovery loops such as Alexander (bang-bang), Meuller-Muller, and Hogg & Chu.

Open Script