All-digital Phase-locked Loop Research Articles

An ADPLL-Based GFSK Modulator with Two-Point Modulation for IoT Applications.

To establish ubiquitous and energy-efficient wireless sensor networks (WSNs), short-range Internet of Things (IoT) devices require Bluetooth low energy (BLE) technology, which functions at 2.4 GHz. This study presents a novel approach as follows: a fully integrated all-digital phase-locked loop (ADPLL)-based Gaussian frequency shift keying (GFSK) modulator incorporating two-point modulation (TPM). The modulator aims to enhance the efficiency of BLE communication in these networks. The design includes a time-to-digital converter (TDC) with the following three key features to improve linearity and time resolution: fast settling time, low dropout regulators (LDOs) that adapt to process, voltage, and temperature (PVT) variations, and interpolation assisted by an analog-to-digital converter (ADC). It features a digital controlled oscillator (DCO) with two key enhancements as follows: ΔΣ modulator dithering and hierarchical capacitive banks, which expand the frequency tuning range and improve linearity, and an integrated, fast-converging least-mean-square (LMS) algorithm for DCO gain calibration, which ensures compliance with BLE 5.0 stable modulation index (SMI) requirements. Implemented in a 28 nm CMOS process, occupying an active area of 0.33 mm2, the modulator demonstrates a wide frequency tuning range of from 2.21 to 2.58 GHz, in-band phase noise of -102.1 dBc/Hz, and FSK error of 1.42% while consuming 1.6 mW.

A 0.055 mm2 Total Area Triple-Loop Wideband Fractional-N All-Digital Phase-Locked Loop Architecture for 1.9–6.1 GHz Frequency Tuning

This paper presents a wideband fractional-N all-digital phase-locked loop (WBPLL) architecture featuring a triple-loop configuration capable of tuning frequencies from 1.9 to 6.1 GHz. The first and second loops, automatic frequency control (AFC) and counter-assisted phase-locked loop (CAPLL), respectively, perform coarse locking, while the third loop employs a digital sub-sampling architecture without a frequency divider for fine locking. In this third loop, fractional-N frequency synthesis is achieved using a delta-sigma modulator (DSM) and digital-to-time converter (DTC). To minimize area, digital modules such as counters, comparators, and differentiators used in the AFC and CAPLL loops are reused. Furthermore, a moving average filter (MAF) is employed to reduce the frequency overlap ratio of the digitally controlled oscillator (DCO) between the second and third loops, ensuring stable loop switching. The total power consumption of the WBPLL varies with the frequency range, consuming between 8.8 mW at the WBPLL minimum output frequency of 1.9 GHz and 12.8 mW at the WBPLL maximum output frequency of 6.1 GHz, all at a 1.0 V supply. Implemented in a 28 nm CMOS process, the WBPLL occupies an area of 0.055 mm2.

A comprehensive review: ultra-low power all-digital phase-locked loop RF transceivers for biomedical monitoring applications

A comprehensive review: ultra-low power all-digital phase-locked loop RF transceivers for biomedical monitoring applications

Current status and applications of time-to-digital converters

Time-to-Digital Converter (TDC) is widely used to realize time interval measurement. The high-precision time measurement technique has important applications in the fields of laser ranging, particle identification, and radioactive nuclear medicine engineering. Based on the existing literature research and data, this paper studies the application areas of TDC in the present development and analyzes the future prospects of TDC applications. The research results showed that: TDC, based on signal screening, realizes time interval measurement as the ultimate purpose of building the system and, at the same time, completes the function of multi-pulse time interval measurement, which can meet the needs of more diversified measurements in the experiments. In the circuit structure, it can identify the feedback output in the all-digital phase-locked loop (ADPLL) and the reference clock phase and frequency information between the feedback output and the reference clock in an ADPLL. It is also promising for use in other areas of high-precision time measurement and processing of circuit signals.

Automated design flow for synthesizable ADPLL: From specification to GDS

We propose an automated design flow for an all-digital phase-locked loop (ADPLL) that selects and implements a PLL layout that satisfies user given input specifications using place-and-route (PnR) tools within 1.2 h. The all-digital architecture enables the use of a theory-based frequency domain model for predicting the output specifications once the oscillator performance is characterized. The cell-based digitally controlled oscillator (DCO) is modeled by extracting the PDK and cell specific constants that characterize the effective current to capacitance ratio from only 3 sets of SPICE simulations. The constants are then used to predict the analog performance with an analytical model, which shows an error rate less than 1.5 % for estimating frequency range and power consumption. The generator guides the user to a feasible set of specifications using the analytical model by providing the achievable range of the failed specification. As design examples, 8 generated PLL designs and their post-parasitic performances are compared to input specifications, including one measurement result from a fabricated chip in 65 nm CMOS process.

A Digitally Controlled Oscillator for ADPLL using combinational frequency multiplier and novel variable delay inverter

In this article, a novel digitally controlled Oscillator (DCO) for All Digital Phase Locked Loop (ADPLL) is presented. In the proposed DCO, the concept of a combinational frequency multiplier is used to double the frequency range of a conventional digital ring oscillator. However, conventional combinational frequency multiplier circuits can produce a 50% duty cycle only for a single input frequency. Hence, a novel circuit for frequency multiplication is proposed that can produce an output frequency equal to 2 times the input frequencies with a 50% duty cycle for all the frequencies. The proposed DCO is developed by integrating a digitally controlled ring oscillator with the proposed novel combinational multiplier. Digitally controlled delay inverters are used to design both the DCRO and the novel combinational frequency multiplier. A 5-bit DCO is realized using a 4-bit DCRO and the proposed combinational frequency multiplier in 90nm CMOS technology. The resultant frequency range is verified by simulation.

Implementation of a secure wireless communication system using true random number generator for internet of things

This paper describes the design and implementation of an internet of thing (IoT)-based application that uses a true random number generator (TRNG) with an all digital phase locked loop (ADPLL) for secure wireless communication. Field programmable gate array (FPGA) boards were used on the transmitter and receiver sides and were interfaced with Esp8266 chips to wirelessly send and receive encrypted sensor data. The MQ-2 gas sensor and tracking sensor were connected to the FPGA board on the transmitter side, where data from the sensors was encrypted using the exclusive-OR (XOR) function and the TRNG architecture. The system can be controlled by users through a web browser served by the ThingSpeak cloud. The Artix-7 FPGA device is used to implement the proposed wireless communication system, for which design and synthesis were done using the Xilinx Vivado 2015.2 tool. The proposed system uses a low amount of power and is suitable for a standalone, highly secure TRNG-based IoT application. The National Institute of Standard and Testing (NIST SP 800-22) test showed that ADPLL with finite impulse response (FIR) filter-based TRNGs are better for encrypting IoT devices for secure wireless communication.

PLL Fractional Spur’s Impact on FSK Spectrum and a Synthesizable ADPLL for a Bluetooth Transmitter

In this work, we present an open-source fully-synthesizable fractional-N all-digital phase-locked loop (ADPLL) designed for a Bluetooth low-energy (BLE) transmitter (TX) along with a semi-analytical model of the PLL fractional spur’s impact on the BLE output spectrum. Based on the model and the BLE specification for spur emission, a requirement for the PLL fractional spurs is derived. To meet the derived spectral mask by reducing the fractional spurs, a novel synthesizable two-step time to digital converter (TSTDC) that employs embedded TDC (EMBTDC) as coarse and Vernier delay-line TDC (DLTDC) as fine TDC is proposed. We also present a digital calibration scheme to compensate for the nonlinearity induced by the place-and-route (P&R) tool. The PLL is fabricated in 12-nm FinFET and demonstrated in a BLE-TX. The measured BLE transmissions satisfy the standard requirements thanks to the reduced fractional spurs. In a standalone PLL mode, the proposed TSTDC and calibration scheme reduced the fractional spurs by 14.3 dB compared to only using an EMBTDC in near-integer <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$N$</tex-math> </inline-formula> operation. The PLL supports a frequency range of 1.8–2.7 GHz and consumes 3.91 mW at 2.4006 GHz achieving figure of merit (FoM) of <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$-$</tex-math> </inline-formula> 220.7 dB in fractional-N mode with a 40 MHz reference, occupying an area of 0.063 mm <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$^{2}$</tex-math> </inline-formula> . A highly automated design flow is used for the PLL to lower the barrier for new developers and reduce the porting cost.

Design of novel hybrid - digitally controlled oscillator for ADPLL

Digitally Controlled Oscillators (DCOs) are an integral part of All Digital Phase Locked Loops (ADPLLs). It is used to generate output frequency corresponding to the applied digital input. But, due to practical limitations in circuit design, DCOs resolution will be highly limited. Delta Sigma Modulator (DSM) is generally used in DCOs/ADPLLs to obtain a greater resolution. However, using DSM will lead to introduction of frequency spurs in the output spectrum. In this work we propose an alternate method to increase the frequency resolution of DCO without introducing frequency spurs. Novel Hybrid DCO architecture is proposed in this work to increase the resolution. Hybrid DCO proposed in this work has both digital and analog control for tuning frequency. Digital control input of the proposed DCO provides coarse frequency control and the analog control input provides fine frequency control. It has been demonstrated in this work that by integrating Hybrid DCO and DSM with an analog low pass filter (LPF), resolution can be greatly increased, without introducing spurs in the spectrum. As a proof of concept, two Hybrid Digitally controlled Ring Oscillators (DCROs) are designed in 90 nm CMOS process, and their period Jitter performance is compared.

A Resolution Control Loop for TDC-Based Phase Detectors in ADPLLs

This paper proposes a resolution control loop that runs in background to control the time resolution of a mid-rise Time to Digital Converter (TDC) used as a phase detector in All-Digital Phase Locked Loops (ADPLLs). The proposed resolution control loop minimizes the TDC resolution until the TDC linear dynamic range equals the range of the input time error. Consequently, PLL in-band phase noise is reduced due to reduction of the Power Spectral Density (PSD) of the TDC quantization noise. Moreover, the linearity of the TDC transfer function across the range of the input time error is guaranteed. On contrary, the counterpart resolution control loop based on Lloyd-Max algorithm does not guarantee the linearity of the TDC transfer function across the range of the input time error. Furthermore, the proposed resolution control loop achieves TDC quantization noise with a lower variance compared to that achieved by the counterpart resolution control loop when applied with a TDC with more than 3 bits. Finally, the hardware implementation of the proposed resolution control loop is more area and power efficient compared to the implementation of the counterpart resolution control loop.

Radiation-tolerant all-digital clock generators for HEP applications

The emergence of high-precision timing systems in High Energy Physics motivates new developments in the domain of clock generation and distribution. Particularly, when considering the challenges arising from adopting advanced deep-submicron CMOS technology nodes, all-digital PLL and clock and data recovery (CDR) architectures constitute a promising option for future high energy physics (HEP) experiments. Both LC oscillator and ring oscillator-based all-digital PLL/CDR blocks for front-end ASICs were studied, designed, manufactured and characterized. Their design, the hardening considerations, as well as the performance obtained with these circuits are presented in this article.

A 2 nJ/bit, 2.3% FSK Error Fully Integrated Sub-2.4 GHz Transmitter With Duty-Cycle Controlled PA for Medical Band

This paper proposed a fully integrated MBAN (2360–2400 MHz) continuous phase modulated transmitter (TX) with tunable less than 0dBm output power for medical band. A duty-cycle tuning strategy was proposed for the power amplifier (PA) featuring adaptive optimized efficiency for different output powers. A fully on-chip transformer-based match network was proposed to suppress the 2nd harmonic using a series <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$LC$ </tex-math></inline-formula> resonator and to suppress the 3rd harmonic by introducing a transformer inter-winding capacitor feedback path. A fractional-N all-digital phase locked loop (ADPLL) with a transformer-based digitally controlled oscillator (DCO) is employed to reduce power consumption as well as improve modulation quality. The transmitter was fabricated in 40-nm CMOS technology, occupying an active area of 0.48mm2. Experimental results show a 26% drain efficiency with −10dBm PA output and 4dB tunable range. A 2mW total power consumption was measured with a TX efficiency of 5% and an energy efficiency of 2nJ/bit. The measured 2nd and 3rd harmonic distortion of the output were −44.3dBm and −57.2dBm, respectively, with on-chip matching network. The measured FSK error of CPM was 2.3% with an M of 2 and 1.57% with an M of 4.

A Fast Digital Phase Frequency Detector with Preset Word Frequency Searching in ADPLL for a UHF RFID Reader

An All-Digital Phase-Locked Loop (ADPLL) is an architecture that is widely employed in the communication system due to the advancement of the Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS) technology process. A 2.4GHz Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) system needs a frequency synthesizer in the local oscillator architecture of the transceiver to generate a stable frequency tuning range Therefore, in this paper, a Digital Phase-Frequency Detector (DPFD) is designed to achieve the phase and frequency acquisition in the ADPLL system. The proposed DPFD is divided into two main parts, the first is the Phase Detector (PD) and the second is the Frequency Detector (FD). The PD has managed to detect the presence of the phase difference by recognizing two different input signals. The FD, on the other hand, is capable to detect the higher frequency by identifying the output signals from the PD in digital formation. In addition, a control unit module is developed to control and adjust the Preset Word (PW) for the system by using a binary search scheme. Comparison results show that the final value of the PW from the simulation is the same as from the manual calculation (theoretical values). The digital PFD and the PW control modules are designed and simulated by using Verilog HDL code. These two designed modules will be integrated into the targeted ADPLL to achieve fast locking performance and ultra-low power for Ultra-High Frequency (UHF) RFID applications.

A 32-Gb/s PAM4-Binary Bridge With Sampler Offset Cancellation for Memory Testing

This brief presents a 32-Gb/s PAM4-Binary bridge for the next-generation memory testing. The bridge incorporates all the required functions to evaluate a high-speed PAM4 memory using a low-speed NRZ tester. The low-speed data transmitted from the NRZ tester to the bridge are converted into high-speed PAM4 data through half-rate clock control and forwarded to the memory, and vice-versa. The ground-terminated PAM4 driver provides the single-ended output by controlling the output current with a 2-tap feed-forward equalizer, achieving a ratio level mismatch (RLM) of 0.95. To minimize the offset at the PAM4 receiver, the offset cancellation circuit with an offset of 2.76mV consisting of a CTLE and sampling latches is employed, and the horizontal margin of the received PAM4 signal is 50% for BER <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${ &lt; } 10^{-9}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> . An all-digital PLL integrated in the bridge doubles the 4-GHz WCK used as forwarded clock for the graphic memory. The count-based PAM4 eye-opening monitor is also proposed to find the optimal codes for the maximum eye opening using the PRBS7 data sequence. The bridge fabricated in the 40-nm CMOS technology occupies an active area of 1.6mm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> and dissipates 132mW.

A Low-Power ADPLL with Calibration-Free RO-Based Injection-Locking TDC for BLE Applications

This paper proposes a low-power all-digital phase-locked loop (ADPLL) with calibration-free ring oscillator (RO)-based injection-locking time to digital converter (TDC) for BLE applications. The RO is reused as the delay cell of TDC, and the quantization step of TDC is always tracked with the RO period; hence no calibration is needed in this architecture. We adopt RO tuning to lower the injection-locking bandwidth so as to decrease the power consumption of the injection current. Moreover, the fractional part of phase error detection is turned down in the coarse tuning of ADPLL to save power. An LC-based digital-controlled oscillator (LCDCO) with a 6.4 nH inductor and a resistive bias is used to have a low power and better phase noise performance. The ADPLL is fabricated in 40 nm CMOS with a 1 V supply and consumes 1.4 mW when it is locked. The measured phase noise is −114 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset. The test results show significant power saving. Thus, it can be a promising candidate for BLE applications.

A Low-Jitter 8-GHz RO-Based ADPLL With PVT-Robust Replica-Based Analog Closed Loop for Supply Noise Compensation

This article presents a ring oscillator (RO)-based all-digital phase-locked loop (ADPLL) that is implemented with a high-gain analog closed loop for supply noise compensation (ACSC). The ACSC not only allows high-frequency oscillation of the RO but also is robust over process, voltage, and temperature (PVT) variations thanks to its replica-based configuration. Moreover, a comprehensive analysis of the noise contribution of the ACSC is conducted for the ADPLL to retain its low-jitter output. Implemented in 40-nm CMOS technology, the ADPLL, with a 1.1-V supply, achieves an rms jitter of 289 fs at 8 GHz without any injected supply noise. Under a 20-m <formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex>${{V}_{rms}}$</tex> </formula> white supply noise, the ADPLL gives rms jitters of 8.7 and 0.63 ps at 8 GHz when the ACSC is disabled and enabled, respectively. The overall power consumption and the area of the presented ADPLL are 9.48 mW and 0.055 mm², respectively.

Low-Loss Heterogeneous Integrations With High Output Power Radar Applications at W-Band

This study presents a design of a 94-GHz high-performance and highly compact frequency-modulated continuous-wave radar sensor. In this sensor, an <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$X$ </tex-math></inline-formula> -band CMOS-based all-digital phase-locked loop chip, <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$W$ </tex-math></inline-formula> -band SiGe-based transceiver monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC), and <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$W$ </tex-math></inline-formula> -band GaN-based MMIC power amplifier (PA) are heterogeneously integrated (HI). Each part of the 130-nm bipolar complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (BiCMOS) SiGe-based transceiver MMIC is designed to include a low-noise amplifier, PA, octupler, mixer, and lange coupler. The fabrication process of our in-house silicon-based MEMS photosensitive composite film is developed to provide very high-density integration and very low insertion loss of interconnections between chips. The HI front end of the radar sensor is measured on-wafer with a high output power of 22 dBm. Moreover, a low double-sideband noise figure (NF) of 10.2 dB is obtained. Bonding–substrate integrated waveguide (SIW)–WG transitions between the heterogeneously integrated front end and the antenna are specially designed and verified. A 2.3-dB degradation is observed, where 19.7 dBm is measured at the transmitter WG WR-10-flange. Thus, the sensor offers a 55-dB dynamic range at a 2-m position with an expectation of a long-distance target-detection range. The radar sensor has an 11.7-cm range resolution and is only <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$60\times 40\times $ </tex-math></inline-formula> 8 mm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sup> in size, with a weight of only 78 g.

Time-domain modelling and performance research of millimeter-wave all-digital phase-locked loop

In this paper, a modified time-domain model of millimeter-wave all-digital phase-locked loop (ADPLL) is implemented. In order to reflect the true behaviour of ADPLL, a quantified output digitally controlled-oscillator (DCO) with time domain jitter is proposed. In this ADPLL time-domain model, the DCO model can only output discrete frequency points to imitate the quantization effect of true DCO, and the overlap of different level tuning band is added into this model to imitate the true situation. In addition, the DCO time domain jitter and wander are also added into this model by using the Box-Muller method. Finally, a period estimation method is used to calculate the phase power spectrum density of the output signal, and then the phase noise is obtained through subsequent processing.

Chip Design of an All-Digital Frequency Synthesizer with Reference Spur Reduction Technique for Radar Sensing

5.2-GHz all-digital frequency synthesizer implemented proposed reference spur reducing with the tsmc 0.18 µm CMOS technology is proposed. It can be used for radar equipped applications and radar-communication control. It provides one ration frequency ranged from 4.68 GHz to 5.36 GHz for the local oscillator in RF frontend circuits. Adopting a phase detector that only delivers phase error raw data when phase error is investigated and reduces the updating frequency for DCO handling code achieves a decreased reference spur. Since an all-digital phase-locked loop is designed, the prototype not only optimized the chip dimensions, but also precludes the influence of process shrinks and has the advantage of noise immunity. The elements of novelties of this article are low phase noise and low power consumption. With 1.8 V supply voltage and locking at 5.22 GHz, measured results find that the output signal power is −8.03 dBm, the phase noise is −110.74 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset frequency and the power dissipation is 16.2 mW, while the die dimensions are 0.901 × 0.935 mm2.

FPGA implantations of TRNG architecture using ADPLL based on FIR filter as a loop filter

This article describes about the design, implementation, and analysis of a true random number generator (TRNG) employing an all-digital phase-locked loop (ADPLL) based on a finite impulse response (FIR) filter as the digital loop filter and implemented on the Artix 7(XC7A35T-CPG236-1) field programmable gate array (FPGA) board using the Xilinx Vivado v.2015.2 design suite. The coefficients of a 3rd-order broadcast low-pass digital FIR filter are computed using the Keiser window method. The MATLAB-FDA tool is used to calculate the filter coefficient. After reducing the bias in the sequence using the XOR-corrector post-processing approach, the suggested ADPLL-based TRNG designs created an unbiased stochastic random number with an overall throughput of 200 Mbps for both designs. The first proposed FIR-ADPLL-based TRNG design (FAT-1) consumes 0.072 W of power, whereas the second proposed FIR-ADPLL-based TRNG design (FAT-2) consumes 0.074 W. The resulting bitstream is verified for randomness using national institute of standards and technology (NIST) test following post-processing. Digital storage oscilloscope (DSO) is interfaced to the Artrix-7 FPGA board in order to capture the TRNG output waveforms. Both the proposed FIR-based ADPLL-TRNG designs passed the NIST SP 800-22 test, indicating that they are well-suited for a variety of industrial applications, including network security, cybersecurity, banking security, smart cards, radio-frequency identification tags, Internet of Things, and Industrial Internet of Things.