Methods and systems are described for adjusting the sample timing of a data sampler operating in a data signal processing path having a decision threshold associated with a decision feedback equalization (DFE) correction factor. The vertical threshold and sample timing of a spare sampler are varied to measure a signal amplitude trajectory of a pattern-verified signal according to detection of the predetermined transitional data pattern, the locked sampling point then being adjusted based on the measured signal amplitude trajectory.

An apparatus includes a receiver buffer, a phase compensation circuit, a data sampler circuit, and an error sampler circuit. The receiver buffer may generate an equalized signal on a signal node using an input signal received via a channel. The phase compensation circuit may, in response to an initiation of a training mode, replace the equalized signal on the signal node with a reference signal. The data sampler circuit may sample, using a data clock signal, the reference signal to generate a plurality of data samples. The error sampler circuit may sample, using an error clock signal, the reference signal to generate a plurality of errors samples. The phase compensation circuit may also adjust a phase difference between the data clock signal and the error clock signal using at least some of the plurality of data samples and at least some of the plurality of error samples.

A method for tuning an analog front end response is provided. The method includes determining a peaking control value for an analog front end (AFE) of a receiver, determining an attribute corresponding to the peaking control value, selecting the peaking control value as the operating peaking control value for the AFE based on the attribute being determined to be higher than a previous attribute, and performing a receiver adaptation using the peaking control for a one or more transmitter configurations.

Generating, during a first and second signaling interval, an aggregated data signal by forming a linear combination of wire signals received in parallel from wires of a multi-wire bus, wherein at least some of the wire signals undergo a signal level transition during the first and second signaling interval; measuring a signal skew characteristic of the aggregated data signal; and, generating wire-specific skew offset metrics, each wire-specific skew offset metric based on the signal skew characteristic.

A receiver includes an interface configured to receive a data signal based on an n-level pulse amplitude modulation (PAM-n) in which n is an integer equal to or greater than 4. The interface may include an analog-digital converting circuit configured to adjust a reference voltage, for distinguishing second bit data from the data signal in a second section, based on first bit data converted from the data signal in a first section and the first bit data converted from the data signal in the second section, the second section being after the first section.

Methods and systems are described for adjusting the sample timing of a data sampler operating in a data signal processing path having a decision threshold associated with a decision feedback equalization (DFE) correction factor. The vertical threshold and sample timing of a spare sampler are varied to measure a signal amplitude trajectory of a pattern-verified signal according to detection of the predetermined transitional data pattern, the locked sampling point then being adjusted based on the measured signal amplitude trajectory.

A receiver includes a plurality of linear equalizers receiving an input signal; and a plurality of samplers configured to sample a plurality of equalization signals output from the plurality of linear equalizers according to a clock signal. Each of the plurality of linear equalizers compares the input signal with a reference voltage among a plurality of reference voltages to determine a level of the input signal.

A receiver includes a continuous-time equalizer, a decision-feedback equalizer (DFE), data and error sampling logic, and an adaptation engine. The receiver corrects for inter-symbol interference (ISI) associated with the most recent data symbol (first post cursor ISI) by establishing appropriate equalization settings for the continuous-time equalizer based upon a measure of the first-post-cursor ISI.

A device and method for a receiver configured to perform timing recovery decoupled feed-forward equalizer (FFE) adaptation. The receiver device can include an analog front-end (AFE) device, which is coupled to a time-interleaved (TI) interface. The TI interface is coupled in a timing recovery feedback loop to FFE equalizers, a digital signal processor (DSP), a delay timing loop (DTL) device, and a clock device, which feeds back to the TI interface. The DSP has an additional pathway to the FFE equalizers, which has an additional pathway to the DTL device. The DTL loop is equipped with an interleave specific enable/disable vector Q[1:N] that can turn on/off the contribution of the specific time interleave errors to the timing recovery loop, which allows the FFE adaptation process to be decoupled from the timing recovery loop.

A comparator includes a second-stage circuit, a first input circuit, a second input circuit, a first cross-coupled circuit and a second cross-coupled circuit. The first input circuit is configured to generate a first data terminal voltage and a first reference terminal voltage. The first cross-coupled circuit is configured to perform mutual positive feedback on the first data terminal voltage and the first reference terminal voltage to generate a first differential signal. The second input circuit is configured to generate a second data terminal voltage and a second reference terminal voltage. The second cross-coupled circuit is configured to perform mutual positive feedback on the second data terminal voltage and the second reference terminal voltage to generate a second differential signal. The second-stage circuit is configured to amplify and latch the first differential signal or the second differential signal in a regeneration phase to output a comparison signal.