An Instant-Startup Jitter-Tolerant Manchester-Encoding Serializer/Deserializer Scheme for Event-Driven Bit-Serial LVDS Interchip AER Links

• Published in: IEEE transactions on circuits and systems. I, Regular papers Regular papers, 2011-11, Vol.58 (11), p.2647-2660
• Main Authors: Zamarreno-Ramos, C., Serrano-Gotarredona, T., Linares-Barranco, B.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Address event representation (AER); asynchronous circuits; asynchronous communications; Chip formation; Circuits; clock data recovery (CDR); Clocks; Electric potential; Encoding; event-driven processing; Jitter; Links; low voltage differential signaling (LVDS); Manchester; Manchester encoding; neuromorphic circuits and systems; Receivers; Sensors; serial AER; serial interchip communication; Synchronization; Very large scale integration
• ISSN: 1549-8328; 1558-0806
• DOI: 10.1109/TCSI.2011.2151070

This paper presents a serializer/deserializer scheme for asynchronous address event representation (AER) bit-serial interchip communications. Each serial AER (sAER) link uses four wires: a micro strip pair for low voltage differential signaling (LVDS) and two handshaking lines. Each event is represented by a 32-bit word. Two extra preamble bits are used for alignment. Transmission clock is embedded in the data using Manchester encoding. As opposed to conventional LVDS links, the presented approach allows to stop physical communication between data events, so that no "comma" characters need to be transmitted during these pauses. As soon as a new event needs to be transmitted, the link recovers immediately thanks to a built-in control voltage memorization circuit. As a result, power consumption of the serializer and deserializer circuits is proportional to data event rate. The approach is also highly tolerant to clock jitter, due to the asynchronous nature and the Manchester encoding. A chip test prototype has been fabricated in standard 0.35 μm CMOS including a pair of Serializer and Deserializer circuits. Maximum measured event transmission rate is 15 Meps (mega events per second) for 32-bit events, with a maximum bit transmission speed of 670 Mbps (mega bits per second).