System Level Approach To Jitter Problems In High-Speed Digital Transmission
by Greg D. Le Cheminant, Measurement Applications Specialist for Digital Signal Analysis Products, Digital Verification Solutions Division, Agilent Technologies

Jitter analysis is a hot topic, because jitter causes bit errors. Knowing how big a jitter problem is doesn’t necessarily provide the information needed to improve system-level, or even component-level, performance. However, if jitter is viewed from a system-level perspective, insight can be gained.

Because jitter can come from a variety of sources, it’s useful to examine the basic architecture of a generic serial data system and look at the mechanisms that create jitter within each element. You have to understand how jitter from one element can affect the jitter performance of another element.

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