Fast and low-cost clock deskew buffer

We propose a clock buffer that is able to compensate clock skews possibly due to process variations, and correct even more severe skews, as those possibly due to faults affecting the clock distribution network or those due to power supply noise. Compensation/correction is performed instantaneously, during system run-time, upon skew occurrence. Compared to alternative solutions which can be used to compensate/correct skews between couples of clocks, that presented here is definitely faster, features lower area overhead and power consumption, and does not require any initialization phase at the beginning of system operation. Additionally, our proposed buffer is also able to compensate/correct clock duty cycle variations due to process parameter variations, as well as faults affecting the clock distribution network. Also in this case, compensation/correction is accomplished within the same clock cycle of duty-cycle variation occurrence. © 2004 IEEE