A novel high-speed multi-phase oscillator using self-timed rings

A high-speed multi-phase oscillator based on self-timed ring is proposed. Self-Timed Rings (STR) are promising approach for designing high-speed serial links and clock generators. The architecture of STR allows us to achieve a maximum frequency with a multiphase outputs since the oscillation frequency is not only depending on the number of stages but on the number of "tokens" and "bubbles" circulating in the ring. In this paper, we propose a method to design STR able to generate high-speed multi-phase outputs. All the electrical simulations and results have been performed using a CMOS 65nm technology from STMicroelectronics.