A 2.6mW/Gbps 12.5Gbps RX with 8-tap switched-cap DFE in 32nm CMOS

A 12.5Gb/s receiver circuit with 8-tap decision feedback equalizer (DFE) is presented, which consumes only 2.6mW/Gb/s, and was measured to receive data error-free over a channel with -27dB attenuation. The receiver uses a switched-capacitor (SC) approach for the DFE, where charge is added to the summation node by switching digitally adjustable capacitances dependent on the received data history.