An architecture of high-performance frequency and phase synthesis

Abstract

Frequency synthesis has many applications in today's commercial electronic and telecommunication system design. Some techniques exist which can be used to generate a frequency that is an integer or fractional multiple of a reference frequency. This architecture is used to generate a signal of any desired frequency in a certain range from multiple reference signals with same frequency but different phases. These reference signals may come from a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) which is close looped with a reference clock by a phase-lock loop (PLL). This architecture provides some unique features, superior quality, and ease of implementation. In some cases, the synthesized frequency is time-average frequency. The signal can be treated as a carrier signal frequency modulated by another signal. Various phase-shifted versions and duty cycle versions of this signal can also be generated from this architecture. This architecture also has direct application to spread spectrum clock generation.