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Timing Jitter
PRIMER
Primer
Table of Contents
Introduction..................................................................... 3 Section 4: Jitter Separation.......................................... 13
4.1 Motivations for Decomposing Jitter............................13
Section 1: The Consequences of Jitter.......................... 3
4.2 The Jitter Model.........................................................13
Computer Bus Design........................................................3
4.2.1 Random Jitter...................................................14
Serial Data Link..................................................................4
4.2.2 Deterministic Jitter.............................................15
Section 2: Just What Is Jitter?........................................ 4 4.2.3 Periodic Jitter....................................................15
2.1 Defining Short-Term: Jitter vs. Wander.........................4 4.2.4 Data-Dependent Jitter.......................................16
2.2 Defining Significant Instants: The Reference Level........5 4.2.5 Duty-Cycle Dependent Jitter..............................16
2.3 Defining Ideal Positions: Clock Recovery......................5 4.2.6 Bounded Uncorrelated Jitter..............................17
2.4 Period Jitter, Cycle-Cycle Jitter, and TIE.......................6 4.2.7 Sub-Rate Jitter..................................................17
4.3 Putting It All Together.................................................18
Section 3: Jitter Measurement and
Visualization..................................................................... 8 Section 5: Jitter vs. Bit Error Rate................................ 20
3.1 Jitter Statistics.............................................................8 5.1 The Jitter Budget.......................................................20
3.2 Jitter Histogram...........................................................8 5.2 The Bathtub Curve.....................................................21
3.3 Jitter vs. Time (Time Trend)........................................10 5.3 A BER Example.........................................................22
3.4 Jitter vs. Frequency (Jitter Spectrum).........................11
Section 6: Summary...................................................... 23
3.5 Eye Diagram..............................................................12
Appendix A: Glossary of Acronyms..................................23
References.......................................................................23
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If you have a way to measure jitter statistics, you can compare After evaluating several million waveforms in infinite-
components and systems to each other and to chosen limits. persistence mode and seeing setup times as short as
However, this alone will not allow you to efficiently refine and 82 nsec, you decide that the setup time might be a problem
debug a cutting-edge design. Only by thoroughly analyzing after all. But is the problem due to variations in the system
jitter is it possible for the root causes to be isolated, so that clock period, in the address decoder, or somewhere else?
they can be reduced systematically rather than by trial and
error. This analysis takes the form of jitter visualization and
decomposition, discussed in detail in Sections 3 and 4.
Although there are many similarities between the causes,
behavior and characterization of electrical and optical jitter,
the equipment used to measure jitter in optical systems differs
from that used in electrical systems. This paper focuses
primarily on jitter in electrical systems.
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2.2 Defining Significant Instants: 2.3 Defining Ideal Positions: Clock Recovery
The Reference Level Before a digital signals deviations from ideal positions can
The significant instants referred to by our definition are the be measured, those ideal positions must be identified. For a
transitions, or edges, between logic states in the digital signal. clock-like signal (alternating 1s and 0s), the ideal positions
To be more specific, the significant instants are the exact conceptually correspond to a jitter-free clock with the same
moments when the transitioning signal crosses a chosen mean frequency and phase as the measured one. More care
amplitude threshold, which may be referred to as the reference must be used for a data signal, since no event (transition)
level or decision threshold. For two-level signal (by far the occurs when the same bit repeats two or more times in a
most common case), the mean signal voltage is frequently row. Clock Recovery is the name given to the process of
used as this reference level. If the signal-of interest is to be establishing the timing of the reference clock.
received by a Schmitt-trigger input, it may be desirable to use One method of clock recovery is to use the constant-
one reference level when analyzing the rising edges and a frequency clock that best fits the measured events, in the
different reference level when analyzing the falling edges. least-squares sense. This means that a reference clock of
The phrase digital signal in our definition is perhaps optimistic, the form:
since for high-speed signals, the transitions are analog events sin(ct + c )
that are subject to rise-time and slew-rate limitations. During
the small but finite time when the signal is ramping through the is assumed, where c and c are constants. The constants
reference level, any voltage noise that corrupts the waveform are chosen such that the sum of the squares of the time
will be converted proportionately into timing jitter. errors between the reference clock and the measured clock is
minimized. This is an excellent approach when a finite-length
block of contiguous data is to be analyzed. If the duration of
the data is sufficiently long, the resulting jitter measurement
may include wander as well as jitter. In this case, a high-
pass filter may be used subsequently to remove the wander
component.
Another effective method of clock recovery is through the use
of a phase locked loop (PLL). A PLL constantly tracks slowly-
varying changes in the symbol rate of the measured data.
Consequently, it acts as a high-pass filter with respect to the
jitter that remains on the signal. Since most datacom links use
PLLs in their receivers, this measurement approach has the
advantage of modeling the behavior of the system in which the
measured device will be used.
For consistency and repeatability of measurement, many
datacom specifications define a golden PLL. In this context,
golden simply means that the PLL characteristics are precisely
defined and tightly controlled. If a PLL conforming to these
specs is used to measure jitter on multiple devices, the jitter
may be objectively compared and logically related to the
system in which the devices are to be used.
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2.4 Period Jitter, Cycle-Cycle Jitter, and TIE The time interval error is shown in Figure 2.4a by the
measurements TIE1 through TIE4. The TIE measures how far
There are several ways in which jitter may be measured on
each active edge of the clock varies from its ideal position. For
a single waveform. These are period jitter, cycle-cycle jitter,
this measurement to be performed, the ideal edges must be
and time interval error (TIE). It is important to understand
known or estimated. For this reason, it is difficult to observe
how these measurements relate to each other and what they
TIE directly with an oscilloscope, unless some means of clock
reveal.
recovery or post-processing is available.
Figure 2.4a shows a clock-like signal with timing jitter. The
The TIE may also be obtained by integrating the period jitter,
dotted lines show the ideal edge locations, corresponding to a
after first subtracting the nominal (ideal) clock period from
jitter-free version of the clock.
each measured period. TIE is important because it shows the
The period jitter, indicated by the measurements P1, P2 and cumulative effect that even a small amount of period jitter can
P3, simply measures the period of each clock cycle in the have over time. Once the TIE reaches 0.5 unit intervals, the
waveform. This is the easiest and most direct measurement to eye is closed and a receiver circuit will experience bit errors.
make. Its peak-to-peak value may be estimated by adjusting
Figure 2.4c gives an example of how these three jitter
an oscilloscope to display a little more than one complete
measurements compare to each other for a specific waveform.
clock cycle with the display set for infinite persistence. If the
For this example, the waveform has a nominal period of
scope triggers on the first edge, the period jitter can be seen
1 sec, but the actual period follows a pattern of eight
on the second edge. This is shown in Figure 2.4b.
990 nsec cycles followed by eight cycles of 1010 nsec.
The cycle-cycle jitter, indicated by C2 and C3 in Figure 2.4a,
measures how much the clock period changes between any
two adjacent cycles. As shown, the cycle-cycle jitter can be
found by applying a first-order difference operation to the
period jitter. This measurement can be of interest because
it shows the instantaneous dynamics a clock-recovery PLL
might be subjected to. Notice that no knowledge of the ideal
edge locations of the reference clock was required in order to
calculate either the period jitter or the cycle-cycle jitter.
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C2 = P2 - P1 C3 = P3 - P2
Modulated Clock
1010 nsec
1000 nsec
990 nsec
Period Jitter
20 nsec
-20 nsec
Cycle-Cycle Jitter
40 nsec
-40 nsec
Time Interval Jitter
Figure 2.4b. Period Jitter Measured with Cursors. Figure 2.4c. Trend Views of Different Measurements.
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If this sine wave were sampled at an arbitrary instant, there is 3.3 Jitter vs. Time (Time Trend)
an equal likelihood that the sample value would lie anywhere
Since the jitter histogram doesnt show the order in which the
between -15 nsec and 15 nsec. Hence, the TIE histogram of
measurement observations occur, it cannot reveal repeating
the modulated signal is spread over 15 nsec with roughly
patterns that might indicate a modulation or other periodic
equal likelihood, as shown in Figure 3.2d. (The steep but
component. A plot of jitter value versus time can make such
sloping tails at the left and right edges of the histogram show
a pattern obvious. As an example, the TIE from the phase-
that the jitter still has a Gaussian component.)
modulated signal of Figure 3.2d was plotted against time to
produce Figure 3.3a.
Now, the pattern of jitter variation becomes apparent, and its
correlation with one of several possible sources of coupled
noise might become clear.
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3.4 Jitter vs. Frequency (Jitter Spectrum) Now, the sinusoidal modulation is seen to have a fundamental
frequency of 15 kHz, as indicated by the largest spur. In
Since the jitter measurements can be plotted versus time,
theory, the Fourier series representation of a triangle wave only
an obvious extension is to apply a Fourier transform to these
has odd harmonics. This is corroborated by the spectrum,
measurements and display the results in the frequency
where components can clearly be seen at 3 kHz, 5 kHz, 7
domain. This results in a jitter spectrum, with the modulation
kHz, and so on. The random noise still appears, but in this
frequency displayed on the horizontal axis and the amplitude
view it is manifested as a broad flat noise floor, that becomes
of modulation shown on the vertical axis. One of the benefits
flat above 2 MHz.
of spectral analysis is that periodic components that otherwise
might be hidden by wideband noise can often be clearly It was mentioned earlier that timing variations with Fourier
distinguished. components below some limit, usually 10 Hz, are considered
by convention to be wander rather than jitter. Of more practical
The prior example of a clock with sinusoidal modulation
interest, some other frequency limit (e.g. the loop bandwidth of
is used again here. Figure 3.4a shows the same TIE
your systems clock-recovery loop) may determine which noise
measurement as Figure 3.3a, displayed as a TIE spectrum.
can be safely tolerated. A spectral view of jitter can reveal
whether the noise in a system is of concern or not.
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0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
-4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4
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1.5
1
0.5
0
-1 -0.5 0 0.5 1
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3000
2000
1000
0
100
-0.2 0 0.2
50
DCD Jitter Distribution
0
Figure 4.3a. Random Jitter is Convolved with Deterministic Jitter to Find Total Jitter.
4.3 Putting It All Together To understand why accurate analysis tools are important,
we compare two systems with different jitter characteristics.
The paragraphs above included eye diagrams and TIE
The first system, identified as System I, has only random jitter
histograms for each of the jitter types individually. But what
with a standard deviation of 0.053 unit intervals (UI). A TIE
happens to the histogram when more than one jitter type is
histogram for this system, which has a data rate of 1062.5
present at the same time? A useful and applicable result from
Mbps, is shown in Figure 4.3b.
statistical theory can be paraphrased as follows: If two or
more random processes are independent, the distribution that The second system has random jitter with a standard deviation
results from the sum of their effects is equal to the convolution of 0.028 UI, about half that of the first system. However, it also
of the individual distributions. has two uncorrelated components of periodic jitter, each with
a peak-to-peak amplitude of 0.14 UI. Figure 4.3c shows the
A visual example of this concept is much more compelling
TIE histogram for System II.
than the verbal description. Figure 4.3a depicts what happens
when duty-cycle jitter (with a histogram consisting of two The two histograms, which contain identical populations of
impulses) is combined with random jitter (with its Gaussian about 42,000 edges, dont look remarkably different. In fact,
distribution). Another example was shown earlier in Figure for these two sample sets the peak-to-peak value of the
3.2d, where the uniform distribution of a triangle wave (a form time interval error is exactly the same: 430 ps (0.457 UI). If
of periodic jitter) was combined with random jitter. visual comparison were the only tool available, distinguishing
between these two cases would be difficult. Accurately
A knowledgeable person could look at the final histogram from
predicting how the systems might behave over a longer
Figure 4.3a and infer what two types of jitter had contributed
observation interval would be impossible.
to it. However, real examples may involve all the jitter types in
various amounts, resulting in a composite histogram that is One might ask whether it is important to distinguish between
much less intuitive. One of the objectives of a thorough jitter these cases, since they look so similar. We shall return for a
analysis is to identify all the individual jitter components that second look at this example after a review of Bit Error Rates
contributed to the final result. and Bathtub curves.
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Clock Data
Serial Data
Connector Cable Connector Amplifier Recovery
Source
(CDR)
A B Access Points C D
Figure 5.1. Common Measurement Points for Setting System Jitter Budgets.
Section 5: Jitter vs. Bit Error Rate Simplistically, one might assume that success has been
achieved if the eye is still open, even just a little, when the
An approximate answer to the right question is worth a good signal reaches the input to the receivers clock-data recovery
deal more than the exact answer to an approximate problem. circuit (access point D). However, the receiver circuit isnt
- John Tukey perfect. The received signals eye must be sufficiently open
horizontally to account for timing uncertainty in the receivers
5.1 The Jitter Budget
decision circuit, and open enough vertically to accommodate
A real communications system consists of transmitter, channel noise influencing the decision threshold.
and receiver, as modeled in Figure 5.1. The channel may
Thus, a thorough system design specification will allocate a
include cabling, interconnects, and active devices that dont
jitter budget so that each well-defined access point has known
perform clock regeneration. The channel may introduce
jitter limits, and that adequate margin remains when the signal
filtering, non-linearity, DC offset, impedance mismatches and
enters the receiver to be resynchronized.
additional random jitter. Various circuit test points and system
connectors will provide access points where the signal quality
may be monitored. As one progresses from the transmitter
to the receiver and monitors the signal quality at each access
point (perhaps using an eye diagram), the signal jitter generally
gets worse.
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Figure 5.2a. Eye Width is used to Determine Performance. Figure 5.2b. Measuring Eye Width Over Time to Determine Bit Error Ratio.
Figure 5.2c. BER Contour Plot with specific BER performance on traditional Continuing along these lines and using a series of rulers, one
eye pattern. could fully characterize the eye opening versus the bit error
rate. (Note that each ruler should be allowed to slide left or
5.2 The Bathtub Curve right to obtain the best possible fit.) If the rulers are all plotted
against their corresponding bit error rates on a single chart,
The concepts of eye diagrams and eye openings were with the ends of the rulers connected, a plot something like
discussed in Section 3.5. The Gaussian probability distribution, Figure 5.2b results.
with its theoretically unbounded peak-to-peak value, was
covered in paragraph 4.2.1. Considering these two topics A plot of this description is called a Bathtub Plot, since the
together leads to an interesting thought: For any signal that pink lines can be imagined to look like a bathtub. Using
contains some Gaussian jitter, the eye diagram should close such a figure, one can tell what horizontal portion of the eye
completely if you accumulate samples for a long enough time. will remain completely free of signal transitions, for a given
This would render the concept of eye opening useless as a confidence level.
basis for comparison. Fortunately, the usefulness of the eye Finally, note that it can take a long time to accumulate enough
diagram is restored if a confidence level is applied to the eye data to directly measure the eye openings near the bottom of
opening. the chart. For this reason, the mathematical model covered in
Consider Figure 5.2a, in which a green ruler 0.5 unit intervals Section 4 can be used to predict performance on the basis of
long has been placed horizontally in the center of the eye. a much smaller sample set.
Suppose that it is regarded a failure if any waveforms cross Another concept that is helpful for identifying jitter performance
this ruler, either rising or falling. In the figure, it appears that at a specific BER level is the BER contour plot. A BER contour
this ruler has not been crossed by any waveforms yet, but (Figure 5.2c) is a two-dimensional extension of the bathtub
such a crossing is inevitable if waveform samples continue to plot, and can be measured radially around the eye opening to
accumulate and the signal contains some Gaussian jitter. provide a visual representation of the eye opening at specific
BER levels.
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5.3 A BER Example Since both of these plots represent data sets of 42,000
observed edges, a red cursor has been placed on each
Section 4.3 presented an example in which two systems with
plot corresponding to a BER of one part in 42,000, or
different jitter characteristics had similar TIE histograms and
10-4.63. At these levels, both of the systems show an eye
identical peak-to-peak jitter for a sample size of about 42,000
opening of about 58%, and the eye opening for System I is
edges. (See Figures 4.3b and 4.3c.) We now return to that
actually greater than that for System II. However, at a BER
example, and show the associated bathtub curves. Figure
of 1e-12 (which is a frequent specification point for serial
5.3a shows the bathtub curve for System I, and Figure 5.3b
communication links) the eye for System I is only open 26%.
shows the plot for System II.
The eye for System II is open 37%, or about half-again as
much as System I. This is a significant difference, and could
easily determine whether a system meets its requirements
or not.
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