Time jitter generation and injection algorithms for high-speed applications

Abstract

Time jitter is an important means for evaluating the performance of high-speed communication systems. Current high-speed digital designs require faster edge speeds and smaller effective data windows. Therefore, analysis of the root cause of jitter has become the key factor in determining the success or failure of a design. To analyze the jitter source of the whole link, the jitter is usually extracted and analyzed by software or hardware at the receivers. To verify the accuracy of jitter extraction at the receivers, many instrument manufacturing companies have developed oscilloscope software to inject jitter at the transmitters, but the core algorithms for jitter generation are commercially sensitive and the software cannot inject all types of jitter, particularly bounded uncorrelated jitter, into the pure signals. This paper proposes a software jitter modeling and injection algorithm that can be implemented in MATLAB and includes transmitter test signal modeling, jitter generation, and the injection of various types of jitter. Unlike other research and commercial software, the proposed algorithm enables the injection of various types of jitter, notably bounded uncorrelated jitter, into test signals. This algorithm is suitable for integration into real-time oscilloscopes for jitter generation and injection.