DesignCon 2009 Analysis of Random Noise and the Effect of Band-Limited Noise on Stressed-Eye Receiver Tolerance Tests

High rate serial-data technologies require that receivers be tested under the stress of calibrated levels of Gaussian Random Jitter (RJ) and/or voltage noise. Every standard assumes that noise follows a Gaussian distribution with a white frequency spectrum. Several emerging standards require that stress signals used to test receivers be filtered, PCI Express Gen 2 requires two separately filtered Gaussian noise signals. In this paper we determine the effect of frequency band-limiting on the distribution of ideal and commercially available, noise sources. We analyze and compare simulated and real noise sources under different conditions.