A METHOD AND A CIRCUIT FOR RETIMING A DIGITAL DATA SIGNAL

Abstract: By application of a method and a circuit for retiming a digital data signal (Din) consisting of a number of successive bits, wherein the data signal is sampled by an internal clock signal (Ckint) generated from an external clock signal (Ckref), the internal clock signal (Ckint) is phase locked to the data signal (Din) so that the latter is sampled approximately in the centre of every bit. By generating the internal clock signal from the external clock signal, and at the same time phase locking it to the dta signal, the internal clock signal will automatically adjust itself so that the data signal is sampled at the appropriate point in time, i.e. in the centre of the bit period. As a result, there are no strict requirements as to the synchronisation between the data signal and the clock signal, and an individual adjustment of the synchronisation in preceding circuits is thus avoided.

Description: A METHOD AND A CIRCUIT FOR RETIMING A DIGITAL DATA SIGNAL The invention relates to a method for retiming a digital data signal consisting of a number of successive bits, wherein the data signal is sampled by an internal clock signal gene- rated from an external clock signal, and a circuit for retiming such a digital data signal When transmitting rapid digital data signals in the form of a number of successive bits, e g from a laser driver to an optical transmission link, it is usually necessary to perform a so-called retiming, wherein the individual bits are synchronised with a clock signal At very high data rates, the individual bit periods are, naturally, very short, the bit period at 2 5 GHz is, e g , only 400 ps Hence, for every bit the data signal is stable only for a short period, and therefore it is important that the incoming data signal is sampled quite accurately in the centre of the bit period, or in the centre of the eye diagram as it is also termed Since the temporal characteristic of the data signal as well as the clock signal is sensitive to e g process and temperature variations, it is difficult prior to the sampling to ensure that the synchronisation between them is sufficient for the sampling actually to be effected in the centre of the bit period, or at least it places heavy demands on the mutual synchronisation of the signals Therefore, it has so far been necessary in the preceding circuits to ensure that these requirements are met However, usually this requires an adjustment of said circuit, and since this adjustment is to be performed separately for each individual circuit during production, it is a process that makes the product considerably more expensive and more complicated Thus, it is an object of the invention to set out a method of the above type, wherein there are no strict requirements as to the synchronisation between the data signal and the clock signal, and wherein an individual adjustment of the synchronisation in the preceding circuits is thus avoided According to the invention this is achieved by phase locking the internal clock signal to the data signal in such a way that the latter is sampled approximately in the centre of every bit By generating the internal clock signal based on the external clock signal, and at the same time phase locking it to the data signal, the internal clock signal will automatically adjust itself so that the data signal is sampled at the appropriate point in time, i e in the centre of the bit period As a result, there are no longer requirements as to the phase position of the external clock signal in relation to the data signal In an appropriate embodiment according to claim 2, a control signal is produced which is a measure of the phase difference between the data signal and the internal clock signal, and the phase lock is performed by means of this control signal As indicated in claim 3, the internal clock signal may be produced by delaying the external clock signal, said delay being controlled by said control signal A relatively simple solution is thus obtained in that the desired effect can be achieved with just one component, i e a controllable delay unit A prerequisite for this solution is, however, that the external clock signal already has the same frequency as the data signal, and any jitter in the clock signal will be transferred to the retimed data signal. Alternatively, as indicated in claim 4, the internal clock signal may be frequency locked to the external clock signal by means of a frequency locked loop, wherein a controlled oscillator produces the internal clock signal controlled by a steering signal which is produced as a measure of a frequency variation between the internal and the external clock signals, and said control signal may be combined with said steering signal before the latter is pro- vided to the oscillator By using a frequency locked loop for generating the internal clock signal, the latter may be generated largely without jitter, causing the retimed data signal to be largely free of jitter, as well By low-pass filtering the steering signal as indicated in claim 5 with a first bandwidth be- fore it is provided to the controlled oscillator, and low-pass filtering the control signal with a second bandwidth before it is combined with the steering signal, wherein said second bandwidth is narrower than said first bandwidth, the change of the control signal will be substantially slower than that of the frequency locked loop itself Thus, one may ensure that the internal clock signal is in the correct phase position with respect to the data signal without affecting the desired frequency locking to the external ock signal As indicated in claim 6, the frequency of at least one of the internal clock signal and the external clock signal, respectively, may be divided down prior to the production of the steering signal Dividing down the internal clock signal when it is generated by means of a frequency locked loop allows the frequency lock operation to be performed at a frequency lower than that of the internal clock signal Dividing down the external clock signal allows this signal as well to have a frequency higher than that at which the frequency lock operation is performed Thus, performing one (or both) of these divisions also allows the frequency of the internal clock signal to differ from the frequency of the external clock signal As mentioned, the invention further relates to a circuit for retiming a digital data signal consisting of a number of successive bits, which is designed to generate an internal clock signal from an external clock signal, and for sampling the data signal by means of said internal clock signal The fact that the circuit is designed to phase lock the internal clock signal to the data signal so that the latter is sampled approximately in the centre of every bit results in the internal clock signal being able to adjust itself automatically so that the data signal is sampled at the correct point in time i e in the centre of the bit period As a result, there are no longer requirements as to the phase position of the external clock signal in relation to the data signal In an appropriate embodiment of the invention according to claim 8, the circuit is designed to perform said phase lock by means of a control signal expressing the phase difference between the data signal and the internal clock signal As indicated in claim 9, the circuit may comprise a controllable delay unit designed in such a way that said control signal may control it, and be designed to provide the internal clock signal by letting the external clock signal pass said delay unit A relatively simple solution is thus obtained in that the desired effect can be achieved with just one component, i e a controllable delay unit A prerequisite for this solution is, however, that the external clock signal already has the same frequency as the data signal, and any jitter in the clock signal will be transferred to the retimed data signal Alternatively, as indicated in claim 10, the circuit may comprise a frequency locked loop, by means of which the internal clock signal may be frequency locked to the external clock signal, the frequency locked loop comprising a frequency detector unit which is designed to produce a steering signal as a measure of a frequency variation between the internal and external clock signals and a controlled oscillator which is designed to produce the internal clock signal controlled by the steering signal and further comprise means for combining said control signal with said steering signal before the latter is provided to the os- cillator By use of a frequency locked loop for generating the internal clock signal, the lat- ter may be generated largely without jitter causing the retimed data signal to be largely free of jitter, as well The fact that the circuit as indicated in claim 11 comprises a first low-pass filter with a first bandwidth for filtering the steering signal before it is provided to the controlled oscillator as well as a second low-pass filter with a second bandwidth for filtering the control signal before it is combined with the steering signal, wherein said second bandwidth is narrower than said first bandwidth, results in the control signal changing substantially slower than the frequency locked loop itself Thus, one may ensure that the internal clock signal is in the correct phase position in relation to the data signal without affecting the desired frequency lock to the external clock signal As indicated in claim 12 the circuit may comprise means for dividing down the frequency of at least one of the internal clock signal and the external clock signal, respectively be- fore they are provided to the oscillator Dividing down the internal clock signal when it is generated by means of a frequency locked loop enables the frequency lock operation to be performed at a frequency lower than that of the internal clock signal Dividing down the external clock signal allows this signal as well to have a frequency higher than that at which the frequency lock operation is performed Thus, the performance of one (or both) of these divisions also allows the frequency of the internal clock signal to differ from the frequency of the external clock signal The invention will be described in greater detail below with reference to the drawings in which Fig 1 shows a circuit according to a first embodiment of the invention, Fig 2 shows an example of the structure of a phase detector for use in the circuit of Fig 1 , and Fig 3 shows a circuit according to a second embodiment of the invention The disclosed circuits hereunder are preferably integrated on a single or several integrated circuits To support the required high-speed operation of the present circuits, logic gates and circuit blocks are preferably implemented as CML logic using bipolar transistors The preferred process is a 2 0 μm Bipolar process suitable digital circuits operating within the frequency range of about 622 MHz to 10 GHz The NPN transistors provided by this process have f τ values of about 25 GHz Alternatively, commercially available 0 13 - 0 25 μm CMOS processes with sufficiently fast transistors may be capable of being applied in some applications of the present invention, at least for circuits operating at the lower system frequencies Fig 1 shows a circuit 1 according to the invention The circuit shown is a laser driver circuit for driving a laser diode in an optical transmission link wherein a so-called retiming of the data signal is performed in the laser driver circuit Hence, the data signal is synchronised to a clock signal Both a (digital end electric) data signal D ιn and a corresponding clock signal Ck r _ f are received from a preceding circuit (not shown) which may typically form part of a node in an optical teletransmission system This optical teletransmission system may operate in accordance with standard communications protocols SDH STM-1 , SDH STM-4, SDH STM-16, SDH STM-64 and Ethernet GE 1 250 Gbit/s utilising data rates of about 155 MHz, 622 MHz, 2 5 GHz, 10 GHz and 1 250 GHz, respectively The data signal D ιn is led via a data buffer 2 to a flip-flop 3, in which the actual retiming is performed The retimed data signal is then led to the laser driver 4, the output signal of which D out is connected to a laser diode (not shown) The circuit is designed for use at very high frequencies, i e frequencies in the GHz range, causing the bit period of the data signal to be very short At 2 5 GHz the bit period is only 400 ps Due to process and temperature variations, the temporal position of the data signal and the clock signal with respect to each other may vary, and this may be the case on the actual laser driver circuit as well as on the preceding circuits Therefore, it is difficult to ensure that the data signal is actually retimed, i e sampled, in the centre of the bit period, or in the centre of the eye diagram as it is also termed The data signal is retimed by the data signal D, n being sampled in the flip-flop 3 by an internally generated clock signal Ck ιnt provided by a voltage-controlled oscillator which is frequency locked to the external clock signal Ck ref The clock signal Ck ref is led via a clock signal buffer 5 and a dividing circuit 6, which will be described in greater detail below, to a phase frequency detector 7, in which it is compared to the internal clock signal Ck ιnt which may also be divided down in a dividing circuit 10 Any frequency difference between the two clock signals will cause an error signal at the output of the phase frequency detector 7 said error signal being provided as a steering signal via a low-pass filter 8 to the voltage-controlled oscillator 9 The clock signal Ck ιn , produced by the oscillator 9 is then used in the flip-flop 3 for sampling the data signal D ιn which is thus retimed in such a way that it is synchronised with the clock signal Ck, nt This part of the circuit is prior art and contributes to ensuring that the internal clock signal Ck ιnt , and thus the retimed data signal D out , are frequency locked to the external clock signal Ck ref However, it does not ensure that the sampling of the data signal D, n in the flip- flop 3 is performed at the correct point in time with respect to the data signal As a consequence of the mentioned process and temperature variations, there may be a phase dif- ference between the data signal D ιn and the clock signal Ck ref , and due to the very short bit periods the data signal is stable for only a very short period, for which reason even a very small phase difference may result in the data signal not being sampled in the centre of the bit period where it is stable The invention rectifies this problem in that phase detector 11 , the operation of which will be described in greater detail below, compares the internal clock signal Ck ιnt with the data signal D ιn and produces a signal at its output, said signal being a measure of the phase difference between the two signals, and thus between the optimum sampling time and the actual sampling time This offset signal is filtered in the low-pass filter 12 and is then added, in the summing point 13, to the error signal from the phase frequency detector 7 before the error signal is provided to the low-pass filter 8 in the original loop This results in a phase change of the voltage-controlled oscillator 9, and thus of the sampling time If the time constants of the two filters 8 and 12 are selected so that the low-pass filter 12 is much slower than the low-pass filter 8, the loop consisting of the phase detector 1 1 , the filters 12 and 8 and the voltage-controlled oscillator 9 will adjust the internal clock signal Ck ιnt so that the optimum sampling time is obtained If e g , the frequency of the internal clock signal Ck, nt is 2 5 GHz corresponding to a bit rate for the data signal of 2 5 Gbit/s and the external clock signal has the same frequency, it may be chosen also to have the comparison in the phase frequency detector 7 take place at this frequency In that case the dividing circuits 6 and 10 may be omitted, the entire clock signal circuit consequently running at 2 5 GHz However it will often be expedient to have the comparison in the phase frequency detector 7 take place at a second (lower) frequency which is used as system frequency elsewhere in the transmission system In the case of e g an SDH system, it would typically be desirable to carry out the comparison at a frequency of 77 76 MHz already used as internal clock signal frequency for a first order SDH system (i e an STM 1 frame) with the data rate 155 52 Mbife In that case the dividing circuit 10 will be designed to divide the frequency down by a factor 32 In this situation, the external clock signal frequency Ck ref will most often be 77 76 MHz, for which reason the dividing circuit 6 could also be omitted The dividing circuit 6 enables the frequency of the external clock signal Ck rΘf , as well, to be higher than the frequency at which the phase frequency detector compares the two clock signals If the external and internal clock signals have the same frequency, the dividing circuits 6 and 10 will be designed to divide down by the same factor, but there may just as well be two different fre- quencies, different division factors being used Fig 2 shows an example of the structure of the phase detector 1 1 As mentioned above, the phase detector 11 compares the internal clock signal Ck ιn t to the data signal D ιn and provides a signal at its output, said signal being proportional to the phase difference between the two signals, and thus between the optimum sampling time and the actual sampling time This is effected by the internal clock signal Ck ιnt being used for sampling the data signal D, n in three flip-flops 21 , 22, 23 at three different points in time If the type of flip-flop used is designed to sample on a positive clock signal edge, the outputs of the two flip-flops 21 and 22 will display the present and preceding sampling value of the data signal, respectively The present value is termed sample C (SC), whereas the preceding value is termed sample A (SA) The delay in flip-flop 21 is taken to be sufficient to ensure that a new sampling value at the output (SC) caused by a positive clock signal edge does not appear until after flip-flop 22 has performed its sampling caused by the same clock signal edge If this is not the case, an additional delay element must be inserted between the two flip-flops Due to the inverter 24, flip-flop 23 will sample the data signal on the negative edge of the clock signal, resulting in a sampling value (sample B, SB) exactly in between the two others, i e about the time when the transition from the preceding to the present bit period takes place, the positive and negative half-periods being taken to be of equal length If this is not the case, the inverter 24 may be replaced by a delay circuit with a delay corresponding to half a clock signal period Thus, at the outputs of the three flip-flops, three successive sampling values will be repre- sented, i e SA which was performed approximately in the centre of the preceding bit period, SB which was performed about the time when the transition from the preceding to the present bit period takes place, and SC which was carried out approximately in the centre of the present bit period A signal SAC is produced by means of an XOR circuit 25 and a subsequent inverter 26, said signal being, logically, "1" if the sampling values SA and SC are identical, and being, logically, "0" if they are different, i e there has been a shift from the preceding to the present bit period Similarly, a signal SAB is produced by means of an XOR circuit 27 and a subsequent inverter 28, said signal being, logically, "1" if the sampling values SA and SB are identical, and being, logically, "0" if they are different Subsequently, two NOR circuits 29 and 30 produce two signals, UP and DOWN If SAC is logically "1", corresponding to the sampling values SA and SC being identical, both signals UP and DOWN will logically be "0" irrespective of the value of SAB, the sampling value SB being insignificant, since it is impossible, in this situation, to extract information about the position of the sampling time If, on the other hand, SAC is logically "0", corresponding to a shift from the preceding to the present bit period having taken place, the signals UP and DOWN are determined by the signal SAB The signal DOWN will logically be "1" if SAB is "1", corresponding to the sampling values SA and SB being identical as a result of the shift from the preceding to the present bit period having taken place later than the negative edge of the clock signal In that case the clock signal is too early as compared to the optimum sampling time i e the clock signal frequency (i e the frequency of the clock signal Ck ιnt ) is too high, and the signal DOWN signals that the clock signal frequency should be reduced If, on the other hand, SAB is "0" the signal UP will logically be "1", corresponding to the sampling values SA and SB being different as a result of the shift from the preceding to the present bit period having taken place prior to the negative edge of the clock signal In that case the clock signal is too late as compared to the optimum sampling time, i e the clock signal frequency (i e the frequency of the clock signal Ck ιnt ) is too low, and the signal UP signals that the clock signal frequency should be increased In order to convert the two signals UP and DOWN to a single signal which may be led via the filter 12 to the summing point 13, the two signals are led to a tπstate circuit or a charge pump 31 When both signals are "0", the output of the circuit 31 is in a state of high im- pedance (tnstate) so that the summing point 13 is not affected When the signal UP is logically "1" the circuit 31 provides a positive charging current which is led via the filter 12 to the summing point 13 and thus increases the control voltage applied to the voltage- controlled oscillator 9 so that the frequency of the internal clock signal Ck ιnt is increased Similarly, when the signal DOWN is logically "1", the circuit 31 provides a negative charging current which is drawn, via the filter 12, from the summing point 13 and thus reduces the control voltage applied to the voltage-controlled oscillator 9 so that the frequency of the internal clock signal Ck ιnt is reduced Consequently, the clock signal Ck, nt will be adjusted on an ongoing basis so that sampling B will always take place precisely at the transition time and sampling C consequently in the centre of the bit period, at the same time as Ck ιnt is still frequency locked to the external clock signal Ck ref The shown capacitor 12a of the low-pass filter 12 can either be an internal capacitor integrated on a silicon die together with the circuit, but is preferably provided externally to allow design engineers to access and experimental fine-tuning of its value to suit any particular application For a circuit 1 adapted to operate in the 2 5 GHz range, the combined value of capacitor 12a and the negative/positive charging current of tn-state circuit 31 is preferably selected to provide a time-constant for the low-pass filter 12 of about 100 μS, corresponding to a cut-off frequency of filter 12 of about 10 kHz, such as between 1 KHz and 50 kHz Practical values of capacitor 12a has been found to be within the range of about 1 nF to 50 nF, and practical negative/positive charging current values may be selected within the range of 20 μA to 500 μA As explained above, the time constant of low-pass filter 8 is preferably selected to significantly smaller, i e low-pass filter 8 has a substantially higher cut-off frequency than the cut-off frequency of low-pass filter 12 Preferably, the cut-off frequency of low-pass filter 8 is selected as being about 10 - 20 times higher than the cut-off frequency of low- pass filter 12 Accordingly for operation in the 2 5 GHz range, a cut-off frequency of filter 8 of about 100 kHz, such as between 40 kHz and 2 MHz is selected For higher or lower system operating frequencies e g 10 GHz or 622 MHz, these cut-off frequencies of low- pass filters 8 and 12 are preferably scaled substantially proportionally Further, it should be noted that in the shown circuit the two flip-flops 3 and 21 perform the same function, the signal SC at the output of the flip-flop 21 being identical to the signal which is led from the output of the flip-flop 3 to the laser driver 4 as the retimed data signal One of the two flip-flops may thus be omitted When two separate flip-flops are men- tioned above it is for the purpose of clearness only Fig 3 shows an alternative embodiment of the invention As in Fig 1 the data signal D ιn in the circuit 41 is led via a data buffer 2 to a flip-flop 3, in which the actual retiming takes place The retimed data signal is then led to the laser driver 4, the output signal of which D out is connected to a laser diode (not shown) Here, the retiming is also effected by the data signal D ιn in the flip-flop 3 being sampled by an internally generated clock signal Ck ιnt produced from the external clock signal Ck ref In this case, the internal clock signal Ck ιnt is, however, not generated by means of a voltage-controlled oscillator On the contrary, the external clock signal Ck rβf is led directly from the clock signal buffer 5 to an adjustable delay unit 42 which is controlled by the output signal from the phase detector 11 which may, in this case as well, be structured as shown in Fig 2 The delay unit 42 should be designed in such a way that a positive voltage from the detector 11 as a measure of the clock signal Ck ιnt being too late as compared to the optimum sampling time will reduce the delay, whereas a negative voltage from the detector 11 as a measure of the clock signal C i nt being too early as compared to the optimum sampling time will increase the delay Continuous adjustment of the clock signal Ck, nt is thus ensured, so that the sampling in the flip-flop 3 is performed in the centre of the bit period It should be noted that in this embodiment it is necessary either that the external clock signal Ck re has the same frequency as the internal Ck ιnt , i e the same frequency as the data signal, or that at least it has not got a frequency lower than said frequencies A higher frequency which is a multiple of the frequency of the data signal may be compensated by inserting a dividing circuit after the buffer 5, but this will seldom be relevant Even though preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described and shown, the invention is not limited thereto, but may also be implemented according to other embodiments within the scope of the following claims

Claims: CLAIMS 1 A method for retiming a digital data signal (D ιn ) consisting of a number of successive bits, wherein the data signal is sampled by an internal clock signal (Ck ιnt ) generated from an external clock signal (Ck rβf ), characterised in that the internal clock signal (Ck ιnt ) is phase locked to the data signal D, n so that the latter is sampled approximately in the centre of every bit 2 A method according to claim 1 , characterised in that a control signal is produced as a measure of the phase difference between the data signal (D ιπ ) and the internal clock signal (Cki nt ), and in that said phase lock is assisted by this control signal 3 A method according to claim 2, characterised in that the internal clock signal (Ck, nt ) is provided by delaying the external clock signal (Ck rΘf ), said delay being controlled by said control signal 4 A method according to claim 2, characterised in that the internal clock signal (Ck, n ) is frequency locked to the external clock signal (Ck re by means of a frequency locked loop, wherein a controlled oscillator (9) provides the internal clock signal controlled by a steering signal which is provided as a measure of a frequency variation between the internal and external clock signals, and in that said control signal is combined with said steering signal prior to the latter being applied to the oscillator 5 A method according to claim 4, characterised in that the steering signal is low-pass fil- tered with a first bandwidth before it is provided to the controlled oscillator (9), and in that the control signal is low-pass filtered with a second bandwidth before it is combined with the steering signal, wherein said second bandwidth is narrower than said first bandwidth 6 A method according to claim 4 or 5, characterised in that the frequency of at least one of the internal clock signal and the external clock signal, respectively, is divided down prior to the provision of the steering signal 7 A circuit for retiming a digital data signal (D ιπ ) consisting of a number of successive bits, which is designed to generate an internal clock signal (Ck ιnt ) from an external clock signal Ck re ), and for sampling the data signal by means of said internal clock signal, characterised in that it is designed to phase lock the internal clock signal (Ck, nt ) to the data signal (D ιn ) so that the latter is sampled approximately in the centre of every bit 8 A circuit according to claim 7, characterised in that it is designed to perform said phase lock by means of a control signal, which is a measure of the phase difference between the data signal (D, n ) and the internal clock signal Ck ιnt ) 9 A circuit according to claim 8, characterised by comprising a controllable delay unit (42) which is designed in such a way that said control signal is able to control it, and in that it is designed to produce the internal clock signal (Ck ιnt ) by letting the external clock signal (Ck r e f ) pass said delay unit (42) 10 A circuit according to claim 8, characterised by comprising a frequency locked loop, by means of which the internal clock signal (Ck, nt ) may be frequency locked to the external clock signal (Ck ref ), wherein the frequency locked loop comprises a frequency detector unit (7) which is designed to produce a steering signal as a measure of a frequency variation between the internal and external clock signals and a controlled oscillator (9) which is designed to produce the internal clock signal controlled by the steering signal, and further comprising means (13) for combining said control signal with said steering signal before the latter is provided to the oscillator (9) 11 A circuit according to claim 10, characterised by comprising a first low-pass filter (8) with a first bandwidth for filtering the steering signal before it is provided to the controlled oscillator (9), and a second low-pass filter (12) with a second bandwidth for filtering the control signal before it is combined with the steering signal, wherein said second bandwidth is narrower than said first bandwidth 12 A circuit according to claim 10, characterised by comprising means (6, 10) for dividing down the frequency of at least one of the internal clock signal and the external clock sig- nal, respectively, before they are provided to the frequency detector unit (7)

Inventors: CHRISTENSEN STEEN BAK, CHRISTENSEN, STEEN, BAK
Applicants: CHRISTENSEN STEEN BAK, GIGA A S, CHRISTENSEN, STEEN, BAK, GIGA A/S
Application year: 1999
Main classification: H04L7
IPC codes: H03L7, H04L7