a system and method is presented for reducing skew between the positive and negative components of a differential signal in a high speed communications link . the communications link includes a signal generator producing and transmitting complementary positive and negative signals over separate transmission lines and a receiver receiving the complementary signals . the communication link further includes a skew compensation circuit having a skew detector , a controller , and separate delay and buffer elements for both the positive and negative component of the differential signal . the controller separately controls each of the delay or buffer elements in response to the detected skew between differential signal components .