Dual mode transmitter with adaptively controlled slew rate and impedance supporting wide range data rates

A novel dual mode transmitter that can be configured either in rail-to-rail voltage mode supporting 1.5 Mb/s and 12 Mb/s data rate or in a 400 mV low-swing current mode supporting 480 Mb/s data rate is presented. In addition, adaptive control schemes for the output impedance and the slew rate are also integrated. The test circuit is implemented using a 0.25 /spl mu/m standard CMOS process technology. It occupies an area of about 800 /spl mu/m/spl times/200 /spl mu/m and consumes less than 70 mW power. A better than 10/sup -9/ BER was measured at 480 Mb/s data rate over a USB cable with a 2/sup 15/-1 pseudo-random data stream.