Simultaneous switching noise analysis of reference voltage rails for pseudo differential interfaces

Abstract

Single-ended (SE) signaling is preferable than differential signaling in high-speed memory interface designs, mainly because of less power and pin-count requirements. However, SE signaling is vulnerable to simultaneous switching noise (SSN) which is a major performance limiter. SSN is a function of the inductance of power and ground planes, which are the return paths for data signal lines. In recent literature, an assertion was posed that the impact of plane bounce on the SE signaling is not significant due to the compensation of noise by the voltage reference rail. In this paper, we set forth a counter-argument by presenting the noise analyses focusing on the impact of various voltage reference designs. In addition, we also show the decoupling method for a system using multiple voltages.