Spectrally Fragmented Electrical Dispersion Compensation for High-Speed Microstrip Traces in Data Centers Connections

The frequency-dependent dispersion impairment of high-speed printed analog traces in next-generation pluggable modules is studied. This frequency dependence is considered for the first time in optical fiber communication systems. Transmission of ultra-broadband electrical signals over such traces dramatically enhances the frequency-dependent dispersion effect. Here, for the first time, an extended model of the ultrabroadband signal transmission that includes this frequency-dependent dispersion effect of the printed analog traces is proposed. Additionally, a novel approach to compensate for this frequency-dependent dispersion impairment is introduced. Inclusive analysis reveals that a significant performance improvement of up to 4 dB is achieved by using the proposed symbol-spaced sampling and reduced-complexity digital signal processing technique.