45-Gb/s SiGe BiCMOS PRBS generator and PRBS checker

A 27-1 pseudorandom bit sequence (PRBS) generator chip set that operates up to 45Gb/s was fabricated and tested. The circuits are implemented using bipolar transistors in a SiGe BiCMOS technology and operate from a single -3.3V power supply. The PRBS generator, which consumes 1.32W, uses a high speed 4:1 multiplexer to produce the final output from four quarter-rate streams. The automatic synchronizing PRBS checker consumes 1.2W and uses a half-rate architecture, demultiplexing the full-rate data stream to lower rate streams that are checked in parallel.