Abstract Self-timed rings are a promising approach for designing high-speed serial links or clock generators. This study focuses on the ring stage components–a C-element and an inverter-and compares the performances of different implementations of this component in terms of speed, power consumption and phase noise. We also proposed a new self-timed ring stage-only composed by a C-element with complementary outputs-which allows us to increase the maximum speed of 25% and reduce the power consumption of 60% at the ...