a method and apparatus for implementing an oversampling transceiver with dead - zone phase detection is disclosed . in the following description , for purposes of explanation , specific nomenclature is set forth to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention . however , it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that these specific details are not required in order to practice the present invention . for example , certain teachings of the present invention have been described with reference to a phase - locked loop circuit in a data communication transceiver device . however , the signal phase comparison and locking techniques of the present invention can easily be applied to other types of phase - locked loop applications or in other applications that require a phase comparison . [ 0031 ] fig2 illustrates a simplified block diagram of a serial link transceiver 100 , in accordance with the present invention . included is a 75 ohm cable - in 10 , a receiver 100 , a multi - phase dll 130 , a transmitter 180 and a 75 ohm cable - out 20 . also included is a comma detector 100 . [ 0032 ] fig3 illustrates a more detailed block diagram of the transceiver device 100 , in accordance with the present invention . the main components of the transceiver device 100 are the receiver 110 and the transmitter 180 . the transmitter 180 of the transceiver device 100 illustrated in fig3 is composed of a wide operating range multi - phase delay - locked loop ( dll ) 181 , a serializer 185 , and a voltage - mode driver 187 . the voltage - mode driver 187 exhibits both active pull - up and active pull - down , and maintains its speed regardless of the cable impedance . furthermore , the voltage - mode driver 187 can be ac coupled to a cable without any additional resistors . a delay - locked loop ( dll ) 181 rather than a phase - locked loop ( pll ) is used in the transmitter 180 of the present invention to avoid jitter peaking which causes the jitter components near the bandwidth to be amplified rather than being suppressed when the receiver pll has the similar bandwidth as the transmitter &# 39 ; s . since the delay - locked loop ( dll ) 181 has different frequency characteristics , such jitter peaking does not occur . the only concern is to build a delay - locked loop ( dll ) 181 with a wide frequency range , which will be explained below . the receiver 110 of the transceiver device 100 illustrated in fig3 is composed of on - chip termination resistor 111 , oversamplers 120 , a multi - phase phase - locked loop ( pll ) 130 , a dead - zone phase detector 150 , and a frequency comparator 160 . the receiver phase - locked loop ( pll ) 130 tracks the transmitter clock frequency . thus , clock recovery is accomplished in the phase - locked loop 130 . the voltage controlled oscillator 131 of the phase - locked loop 130 produces a clock signal to have the oversamplers 120 sample the incoming signal at three - times ( 3 ×) the bit frequency . while the digital phase - locked loop 130 based 3 × oversampling architecture has an inherent static sampling phase error up to ⅙ bit time and shows abrupt phase jump in the recovered clock due to phase quantization , the architecture of the present invention reduces such sampling error and avoids the phase jump in the presence of excessive amount of jitter in the data stream . delay cells with a folded starved inverter configuration are used in the voltage controlled oscillator ( vco ) to exhibit less jitter and more tolerance against supply noise . the dead - zone phase detector 150 , of which detailed operation will be explained later , examines the sampled data and determines the direction of change for the voltage controlled oscillator ( vco ) 131 frequency . the dead - zone phase detector 150 is activated only after frequency lock is obtained when the external reference clock frequency and the voltage controlled oscillator 131 frequency are within 200 ppm of each other . the frequency comparator 160 is designed to have a hysteresis between its lock and unlock states in order to interact with the phase - locked loop 130 in a compatible manner and to lock more robustly to the reference clock . specifically , the frequency comparator 160 is deactivated when the external reference clock frequency and the voltage controlled oscillator 131 frequency are within 200 ppm of each other , but the frequency comparator 160 is only reactivated when the external reference clock frequency and the voltage controlled oscillator 131 are greater than 1000 ppm of each other . [ 0042 ] fig4 illustrates a more detailed block diagram of the frequency comparator 160 . as previously stated , the frequency comparator has hysteresis between the lock and unlock conditions . a 16 - bit binary counter 162 is updated at vco - clk cycle . a 14 bit divider 164 divides the ref - clk . latch u2 samples the binary counter value at the divided ref - clk ridges . however , the ref - clk and vco - clk domains are asynchronous with each other . as a result , there is a possibility that the latch u2 will fall ino meta - stability when transmitted value changes on the sampling edge of the ref - clk . since some bits have been changed while others have not at the sampling time , the sampled value can possibly be very different from the original value . to prevent this meta - stability problem , a binary - to - gray code converter 166 is inserted before the latching stage to allow only one bit to be inverted whenever the counter value is updated . referring back to fig3 a comma detector 192 in the transceiver device 100 monitors the incoming data stream 30 to search for a k28 . 5 pattern in ibm 8b / 10b coding for byte alignment . for ease of testing at the full speed , the transceiver device 100 includes an integrated built - in self test ( bist ) circuit 199 . the build - in self test ( bist ) circuit includes pseudo random bit stream ( prbs ) generation 40 , verification ( not shown ), and bit error rate ( ber ) counting logic ( not shown ). fig5 a - d illustrate the structure and operation of one embodiment of a delay - locked loop ( dll ) 181 circuit for the transceiver of fig2 . a new dll architecture is shown to widen its range further in an architecture level . [ 0047 ] fig4 a illustrates a voltage - controlled delay line ( vcdl ) circuit 201 that consists of 10 delay cell elements ( 210 , 211 , . . . 219 ) and generates the same number of clock outputs . fig4 b illustrates one possible embodiment of the internal structure of each delay cell element ( 210 , 211 , . . . 219 ). for the main phase detector ( pd ) in fig5 b to work around the stuck and harmonic - lock problems , the initiai t vcdl value should satisfy the following inequality , as shown in equation i : however , the range of t vcdl is generally wider than the above restraint and the initial value of t vcdl is not known at the start - up time . to put the initial t vcdl within the range in the preceeding inequality ( equation i ), two current steering phase detectors ( cspds ) 50 and 60 are used . specifically , fig5 b illustrates cspd 1 50 and cspd 2 60 . since the upper to lower current ratio is tuned to 3 : 1 as illustrated in fig5 c , ref - clk , clk 0 , and clk 1 maintain the delay relationship illustrated in the timing diagram of fig5 e . it can be summarized in the following inequalities , as shown in equation ii : t dc & lt ; ⅛ × t clk and 2 × t dc & gt ; ⅛ × t clk ( equation ii ) or equivalently in terms of t vcdl , as shown in equation iii : ⅝ × t clk & lt ; t vcdl & lt ;{ fraction ( 5 / 4 )} × t clk ( therefore t dc ={ fraction ( 1 / 10 )} × t vcdl ) ( equation iii ) where t dc is ref - clk to clk 0 delay and 2 × t dc is ref - clk to clk 1 delay . in such a locked state , the q 1 output from cspd 1 is ‘ 0 ’ and the q 2 output from cspd 2 is ‘ 1 ’ as illustrated in the timing diagram fig5 e . thus , referring back to fig5 b , “ gup ” and “ gdown ” become ‘ 0 ’ and “ glock ” become ‘ 1 ’. then , cp 0 is disabled and pd 1 is activated . since inequality ( equation iii ) satisfies inequality ( equation i ) in the control hand - over , the transition is smooth and pd 1 removes the residual phase error between ref - clk and clk 9 without losing the lock . pd 2 ( fine phase detector ) is also activated and performs cell - level duty - cycle correction . in this manner , multi - phase clocks are made equally spaced with a 50 % duty - cycle . the condition for correct current steering phase detector ( cspd ) operation is as follows : t dc . max (={ fraction ( 1 / 0 )} × t vcdl . max )& lt ; ⅞ × t clk ( equation iv ) this inequality determines the lower bound of the delay - locked loop operating range as follows : thus , the theoretical operating frequency range of the circuit is 8 . 75 : 1 , which is wide enough for many applications . in high bandwidth communication systems over a long distance , the receiver should be able to operate in the worst case when the total jitter of the incoming data signals is less than or equal to about 40 % of a bit time . the total jitter is the sum of deterministic and random jitter . the deterministic jitter includes the effect of systematic variation of bit times and inter - symbol interference ( isi ). the deterministic jitter generally provides the major portion of the total jitter in a long copper cable . when a receiver finally receives a signal that was transmitted over a long cable , the received signal is severely degraded . one specific type of degradation is jitter , a time - based distortion of the received signal . jitter causes the signal transition time to vary . for example , fig1 a and 6a illustrate an eye diagram of a signal 60 and 62 that has been degraded by jitter . note that there is no clean signal transition edge 70 or 74 in fig1 a and 6a . [ 0060 ] fig1 b and 6b illustrate a histogram of the jitter distribution 80 and 82 of the signals 60 and 62 in fig1 a and 6a , respectively . due to systematic variation of bit times and various other reasons , the jitter histograms are often found to be asymmetric and have a longer tail 80 a and 82 b in one direction . the purpose of the phase detection in a receiver circuit is to have the sampling clock located at the middle of the “ data eye ” in the eye diagram 60 and 62 of fig1 a and 6a . this will minimize the bit error rate when recovering data from a severely degraded signal . the system of the present invention prevents such an oscillation at the locked state and optimizes the placement of the data - sampling clock . specifically , the present invention introduces a tracked three - times ( 3 ×) oversampling with “ dead - zone ” detection . in the system of the present invention , only the extreme tail portions of the jitter histogram activate the phase adjustment circuitry . the edges located in the “ dead - zone ” ( the middle portion of one - third of the bit time ) are ignored for phase comparison . thus , the phase adjustment circuit is active less often as illustrated in the up and down pulse diagram of fig6 c . the dead - zone detection circuit may operate by comparing the bit values of two consecutive data samples and the two edge detection samples that occur between the two consecutive data samples . the following table i provides a truth table of how the data edge bits . table i can be viewed with reference to fig7 a to 7 e . table i data edge edge n 1 2 data n + 1 phase adjustment figure 0 0 0 0 no change ( no transition ) 0 0 0 1 down 0 0 1 0 no change ( no transition ) 0 0 1 1 no change ( dead zone ) 0 1 0 0 no change ( no transition ) 0 1 0 1 should not occur . 0 1 1 0 no change ( no transition ) 0 1 1 1 up 1 0 0 0 up 1 0 0 1 no change ( no transition ) 1 0 1 0 should not occur . 1 0 1 1 no change ( no transition ) 1 1 0 0 no change ( dead zone ) 1 1 0 1 no change ( no transition ) 1 1 1 0 down 1 1 1 1 no change ( no transition ) since the data sampling points are driven toward the center of the data eye only with the worst - case edges , the operation of the 3 × oversampling system with dead - zone detection is more robust in the presence of excessive jitter , where bit errors are more likely . furthermore , the system of the present invention does better job of keeping the data sampling clock at the center of the data eye as illustrated by fig6 a . although the width of the dead - zone can be varied , simulation has proved that the dead - zone of one - third of a bit time offers quite adequate performance . furthermore , a one - third of a bit time dead zone can be easily implemented with a 3 × oversampling clock . interestingly , the clock recovered from the data stream is expected to contain more jitter when the incoming serial data signal is clean . in such a case , the clock edges drift by up to one third of a bit time . however , the bit error rate is very low in such circumstances . the design of the present invention reduces the pulse width to one bit time , thereby avoiding using an extremely small pumping current . furthermore , due to the wide tolerance of the phase detection mechanism , the design of the present invention exhibits a wide frequency range operation without the pumping current control under pvt variations of pll components . [ 0069 ] fig8 illustrates a schematic diagram of a folded starved inverter for use in the voltage controlled oscillator ( vco ) of one embodiment of the present invention . a cross - coupled pmos . pair is included to sharpen the transition edges of the output waveform regardless of the delay time . the inverters , g 1 and g 2 , give more linearity to the vco gain and its positive supply - sensitivity compensates the negative supply - sensitivity of the starved cell . to reduce the effect of a power supply fluctuation further , a supply regulator 620 is added . resistors and capacitors filter out the high frequency components of the 3 . 3v supply and provide a clean voltage to the gate of a nmos source follower . simulation results show that a vco implemented according to fig8 has about 10 times smaller supply sensitivity ( 0 . 23 ps / mv ) and substrate sensitivity ( 0 . 26 ps / mv ) and 15 db less phase noise than a typical vco . a prototype chip has been fabricated with a 0 . 25 μm cmos process . the dll operating range is 30 mhz to 250 mhz with less than 2 % timing error among clock phases . board level testing shows that the transceiver operates at 2 . 5 gbaud over a 10 - meter 150ω single - twisted - pair ( stp ) cable and at 1 . 25 gbaud over a 25 meter single - twisted - pair ( stp ) cable with 25 % eye opening with no error detected for more than 3 hours ( a bit error rate ( ber ) of less than 10 − 13 ). due to the operation of the dead - zone phase detection circuit 150 of the present invention , the recovered clock jitter is actually reduced as the jitter increases in the serial data signals . in an extreme case at 1 . 25 gbaud , recovered clock jitter is reduced down to 28 ps , rms when the signal jitter is 111 ps , rms . on the other hand , when there is little jitter in the serial data signal , relatively large jitter of 40 ps , rms is observed at the receiver but without any bit error . when the phase - locked loop 130 of the receiver 110 is locked to the reference clock at 187 mhz , the measured jitter is 5 . 5 ps , rms and 35 ps , peak - to - peak . the following table ii summarizes the measured performance of the transceiver circuit as implemented in 0 . 25 μm cmos semiconductor process technology . table ii semiconductor process 0 . 25 μm n - well 4 - metal cmos process supply voltage 2 . 5 v ( core ), 3 . 3 v ( i / o ) dll frequency range 30 - 250 mhz data rate range 0 . 6 - 2 . 6 gbaud area total 4 . 9 mm 2 dll 0 . 1 mm 2 pll 0 . 36 mm 2 power dissipation total 57 . 5 ( mw / gbaud ) × data rate + 125 . 5 ( mw ) ( 197 mw @ 1 . 25 gbaud , 269 mw @ 2 . 5 gbaud dll 16 . 8 mw @ 125 gbaud pll 29 . 4 mw @ 1 . 25 gbaud ( 6 . 6 mw for vco only ) accumulated jitter tx data 7 . 3 ps rms / 46 ps peak - to - peak ( with link activated ) dll 6 . 0 ps rms / 40 ps peak - to - peak (@ 1 . 87 gbaud ) pl 5 . 5 ps rms / 35 ps peak - to - peak bit error rate ( ber ) & lt ; 10 − 13 with a 10 m 150ω single - twisted - pair ( stp ) cable @ 2 . 5 gbaud & lt ; 10 − 13 with a 25 m 150ω single - twisted - pair ( stp ) cable @ 12 . 5 gbaud the foregoing has described a method and apparatus for implementing an oversampling transceiver with dead - zone phase detection . it is contemplated that changes and modifications may be made by one of ordinary skill in the art , to the materials and arrangements of elements of the present invention without departing from the scope of the invention .