In serial-data transmission systems and standards, time-interval error (TIE) jitter, also referred to herein as jitter, is a term of art that can be defined as the variation of the significant instances of a signal from its ideal position in time. A data signal is generally sampled in time midway between its ideal edge transitions, where the data signal is stable and has reached a value that can be judged to be a high-level state or a low-level state. A clock timing signal is generally used to sample the data signal. Jitter can cause a transition in the data signal or clock timing signal to vary from its ideal location, and if large enough, jitter can push the transition in the data signal past its sampling point causing a bit error. One figure-of-merit for a serial-data transmission link is its bit-error ratio (BER), which is the number of erroneously received bits divided by the number of transmitted bits.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds