A Clock-Less Jitter Spectral Analysis Technique

In this paper, we propose a method for extracting the spectral information of a multigigahertz jittery signal without using an ideal reference clock. This method utilizes existing on-chip single-shot period measurement techniques to measure single periods of a multigigahertz signal for analysis. Utilizing the same sampling and measuring principle, we propose another less computationally intensive method, based on the derivative principle, to extract only the random jitter component of the signal. To perform analysis on higher frequency signals, both methods are extended to measures multiple signal periods, instead of a single period, at each sampling. These methods do not require an ideal sampling clock, nor any additional measurement beyond existing techniques. Experimental results based on simulation show that these methods can accurately estimate the sinusoidal and random jitters of a multigigahertz signal. Extracted values can be used for estimating the bit-error rate of serial communication systems.