Validation and Performance Evaluation of High Speed Connector Model for Channel Design at 56 Gbps and Above

The advent of Hyperscale Networks with the internet infrastructure has pushed digital data rates to the highest levels of performance. Emerging applications using 56Gbps and above are requiring new methods of validation, compared to the traditional metrics of BER and eye diagrams, to avoid throwing channel margin away unnecessarily. The Channel Operating Margin (COM) figure-of-merit along with measurement/simulation correlation is becoming a critical part of the design cycle. The analysis of the test cases proposed herein will present an extensive validation of a high speed connector for differential interconnects working up to 112 Gbps, by providing an in-depth analysis of such component, as a critical portion of the channel. A comprehensive correlation of the connector model to experimental results in terms of thru and crosstalk responses in both time and frequency domains provides a reliable connector model for the subsequent channel design. Comparison of new test methodologies will be shown to accurately predict how to optimize channel performance at today’s ultra-fast data rates.