Modeling of eye-diagram distortion and data-dependent jitter in meander delay lines on high-speed Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) based on a time-domain even-mode and odd-mode analysis

Crosstalk induced in a meander delay line produces a significant amount of waveform distortion and data-dependent jitter at the output port. This paper introduces an interpretation of the eye-diagram distortion and the jitter generation mechanism based on a time-domain even- and odd-mode analysis of a coupled transmission line structure. From the proposed analysis, this paper proposes jitter-estimation equations for both the short and long unit line delay cases. The eye-diagram distortion and timing jitter are predicted and estimated, respectively. In order to verify the jitter-estimation equations, a series of microstrip-type printed circuit board test vehicles with the meander delay line are fabricated and tested. The measured jitter shows good agreement with the proposed jitter-estimation equations. © 2008 IEEE.