In this paper, active filter structures in a near-end crosstalk (NEXT) noise canceller for 20Gbit/s throughput is investigated. The active filters provide tunable noise emulation circuits and comprise the primary components of an analog NEXT canceller architecture. The two topologies proposed are a pole-zero (PZ) filter and a finite impulse response (FIR) filter. The NEXT canceller is designed in a 0.18/spl mu/m CMOS technology. Due to the multi-gigabit environment, an analog approach is proposed here as a alternative to a much more complex and demanding digital approach.