AN 835: PAM4 Signaling Fundamentals

ID 683852
Date 3/12/2019
Public
Document Table of Contents

2.5. PAM4 Jitter Methodology

Many NRZ signal standards require extrapolation of Total Jitter (Tj) to BERs of 10-12. This required fitting values to a (dual-dirac) model. Total Jitter (Tj) includes Random Jitter (Rj) and Deterministic Jitter (Dj), which are determined by that extrapolation method. PAM4 technologies require only a BER of 10-6 at the physical layer. Since oscilloscopes can easily acquire 106 bits in a single acquisition, Rj/Dj extrapolation is not required, and a new methodology is used for PAM4 signaling.

Table 6.  Transmitter Output Jitter Specifications
Characteristic Symbol Condition MIN. TYP. MAX. UNIT
Uncorrelated Bounded High Probability Jitter T_UBHPJ See 13     0.05 UIpp
Uncorrelated Unbounded Gaussian Jitter T_UUGJ     0.01 UIrms
Even-Odd Jitter T_EOJ     0.019 UIpp

Uncorrelated Unbounded Gaussian Jitter (UUGJ) is conceptually similar to Rj. Uncorrelated Bounded High Probability Jitter (UBHPJ) is conceptually similar to Dj. Even-Odd Jitter (EOJ) is a new method for PAM4. EOJ is measured from a specific pattern PRBS13Q defined in the OIF-56G standard.

The methodology used to measure UUGJ, UBHPJ and EOJ is defined in section 17.3.1.7.1 of the OIF-CEI-56G-MR standard.

13 Measured as described in Section 17.3.1.7