On-chip Loop Filter Research Articles

A 5.42~6.28 GHz Type-II PLL with Dead-Zone Programmability and Charge Pump Mismatch Trimming

This paper proposed a 5.42~6.28 GHz type-II phase locked loop (PLL) for the sake of both loop filter switching capability and extensive programmability. An on-chip loop filter is used in conjunction with off-chip one to form a switching filter pair for diverse application scenarios. In order to strike a balance between dead-zone elimination and noise contribution minimization, a 3-bit programmable reset time ranging from 25 ps to 200 ps with a step of 25 ps is brought into PFD (phase frequency detector) design while CP (charge pump) current is programmable from 200 μA to 900 μA with a 100 μA/step digital control. Power management units (PMU) including bandgap and low dropout regulators (LDO) are integrated on-chip with resistor string trimming which effectively counteracts fabrication variations. In addition, a piecewise linear VCO with 3-bit control is designed with a fully digital 6-bit multi-modulus divider (MMD) chain cascaded. The proposed PLL is implemented in a 40-nm bulk CMOS process and the power consumption is 8 mA@1.2 V, in which around 5 mA@1.2 V is consumed by output buffers. The fabricated PLL chip achieves a frequency tuning range of 5.42~6.28 GHz, a phase noise ranging from −107.2~−110.4 dBc/Hz@1 MHz offset from carrier, a reference spur of lower than −70 dBc when on-chip active loop filter bandwidth is set to be around 500 KHz. Its FoM is approximately −176.98~−180.18 dBc/Hz while FoMT is approximately −180.32~−183.52 dBc/Hz@1 MHz offset from carrier. Its most specifications are comparable to or better than most existing literature.

A 5-GHz Adjustable Loop Bandwidth Frequency Synthesizer With an On-Chip Loop Filter Array

The design of an adjustable loop bandwidth (LBW) frequency synthesizer with an on-chip loop filter (LF) array is presented. The LF array based on the simple capacitor multiplier topology is proposed to support LBW switching between 500 kHz and 1 MHz while saving 82.9% chip size compared to the traditional LF array. The maximum capacitance of 108 pF is realized by using the capacitor multiplier with an on-chip capacitance of 6 pF. The proposed frequency synthesizer is implemented in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) 0.18-μm CMOS process and supplied at 1.8 V with a current dissipation of 11.8 mA.

A 3 mW 1.2–3.6 GHz Multi-Phase PLL-Based Clock Generator with TDC Assisted Auto-Calibration of Loop Bandwidth

A PLL-based clock generator with an auto-calibration circuit is presented. The auto-calibration circuit employs an oscillator-based time-to-digital converter (TDC) to achieve a constant loop bandwidth and fast lock time. The TDC measures the operating frequency of [Formula: see text]-stage ring-VCO with a resolution of [Formula: see text] in a time period of [Formula: see text]. The measured frequency is utilized to calibrate loop bandwidth and VCO frequency. The clock generator is designed in 40[Formula: see text]nm CMOS process and operates from 1.2[Formula: see text]GHz to 3.6[Formula: see text]GHz with 8-phase outputs. The total lock time is less than 3[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]s including calibration and PLL closed-loop locking processes. Operating at 3.2[Formula: see text]GHz, the in-band phase noise is better than [Formula: see text][Formula: see text]dBc/Hz and root-mean square (RMS) jitter integrated from 10[Formula: see text]KHz to 100[Formula: see text]MHz is 2 ps. In the entire operating range, the RMS jitter and reference spur are better than 5.5[Formula: see text]ps and [Formula: see text][Formula: see text]dBc/Hz, respectively. The clock generator consumes only 3[Formula: see text]mW from 1.1[Formula: see text]V supply at high-frequency end and 1.6[Formula: see text]mW at low-frequency end. The active area is only 0.04[Formula: see text]mm2 including on-chip loop filter and auto-calibration circuits.

A Clock Regenerator using Two 2ndOrder Sigma-Delta Modulators for Wide Range of Dividing Ratio

This paper presents a clock regenerator using two 2<SUP>nd</SUP> order Σ-Δ (sigma-delta) modulators for wide range of dividing ratio as defined in HDMI standard. The proposed circuit adopts a fractional-N frequency synthesis architecture for PLL-based clock regeneration. By converting the integer and decimal part of the N and CTS values in HDMI format and processing separately at two different Σ-Δ modulators, the proposed circuit covers a very wide range of the dividing ratio as HDMI standard. The circuit is fabricated using 0.18 ㎛ CMOS and shows 13 ㎽ power consumption with an on-chip loop filter implementation.

A fully integrated frequency synthesizer for a dual-mode GPS and Compass receiver

This paper presents a fully integrated frequency synthesizer for a dual-mode GPS and Compass receiver fabricated in a 0.13 μm CMOS technology. The frequency synthesizer is implemented with an on-chip symmetric inductor and an on-chip loop filter. A capacitance multiplying approach is proposed in the on-chip loop filter design for area-saving consideration. Pulse-swallow topology with a multistage noise shaping ΔΣ modulator is adopted in the frequency divider design. The synthesizer generates local oscillating signals at 1571.328 MHz and 1568.259 MHz with a 16.368 MHz reference clock by working in integer and fractional modes. Measurement results show that the phase noise of the synthesizer achieves −91.3 dBc/Hz and −117 dBc/Hz out of band at 100 kHz and 1 MHz frequency offset, separately. The proposed frequency synthesizer consumes 8.6 mA from a 1.2 V power supply and occupies an area of 0.92 mm2.

A Low-Power and Portable Spread Spectrum Clock Generator for SoC Applications

In this paper, a novel portable and all-digital spread spectrum clock generator (ADSSCG) suitable for system-on-chip (SoC) applications with low-power consumption is presented. The proposed ADSSCG can provide flexible spreading ratios by the proposed rescheduling division triangular modulation (RDTM). Thus it can provide different EMI attenuation performance for various system applications. Furthermore, the proposed ADSSCG employs a low-power digitally controlled oscillator (DCO) to save overall power consumption significantly. Measurement results show that power consumption of the proposed ADSSCG is 1.2 mW (@54 MHz), and it provides 9.5 dB EMI reductions with 1% spreading ratio. Besides, the proposed ADSSCG has very small chip area as compared with conventional SSCGs which often required large on-chip loop filter capacitors. In addition, the proposed ADSSCG is implemented only with standard cells, making it easily portable to different processes and very suitable for SoC applications.

A SiGe BiCMOS 24-GHz receiver front-end for automotive short-range radar

This paper presents a fully integrated SiGe BiCMOS 24-GHz receiver front-end implemented for a ultra-wideband automotive short-range radar sensor. The circuit consists of a homodyne I/Q down-converter and a 24-GHz synthesizer. The receiver front-end is able to achieve a power conversion gain as high as 30 dB and a 6-dB noise figure, while preserving high linearity performance thanks to a 1-bit gain control. The frequency synthesizer, which also includes an on-chip loop filter, guarantees a phase noise of ?104 dBc/Hz at 1-MHz offset from the 24.125-GHz carrier and a 4.7-GHz tuning range from 20.4 to 25.1 GHz.

A crystal-tolerant fully integrated CMOS low-IF dual-band GPS receiver

This paper presents the design of a dual-band L1/L2 GPS receiver, that can be easily integrated in portable devices (mainly GSM mobile phones). For the ease of integration with GSM wireless systems the receiver can tolerate most of the common GSM crystals, besides the GPS crystals, this will eliminate the need to use another crystal on board. A new frequency plan is presented to satisfy this requirement. A low-IF receiver architecture is used for dual-band operation with analog on-chip image rejection. The receiver is composed of a narrow-band LNA for each band, dual down-conversion mixers, a variable-gain channel filter, a 2-bit analog-to-digital converter, and a fully integrated frequency synthesizer including an on-chip VCO and loop filter. The complex filter can accept IF frequency variation of 10% around 4.092 MHz which allows the use of the commonly used 10/13/26 MHz GSM crystals and all the GPS crystals. The synthesizer generates the LO signals for both L1/L2 bands with an average phase noise of ?95 dBc/Hz. The receiver exhibits maximum gain of 112 and 115 dB, noise figures of 4 and 3.6 dB, and input compression points of ?76 and ?79 dBm for L1 and L2, respectively. An on-chip variable-gain channel filter provides IF image rejection greater than 25 dB and gain control range over 80 dB. The receiver is designed in 0.13 μm CMOS technology and consumes 18 mW from a 1.2-V supply.

A 2.4 GHz 6.6 mA fully differential CMOS PLL frequency synthesiser

A 2.4 GHz 6.6 mA fully differential CMOS phase-locked loop (PLL) frequency synthesiser with an on-chip capacitance-calibrated loop filter is presented. The frequency synthesiser includes a differential-tuning voltage-control oscillator (VCO) and a fully differential charge-pump (CP) to reject the common-mode noise. A combination of analogue tuning and digital tuning techniques (4-bit binary weighted capacitor array) is utilised to extend the tuning range of the VCO. A novel topology and an optimisation strategy are utilised to reduce the power consumption of the frequency divider. The capacitance in the loop filter is on-chip calibrated so that the loop dynamic characteristics are accurately controlled despite the process variation. The frequency synthesiser has been implemented in UMC 0.18 μm CMOS. The measured results show that the VCO achieves a 29% tuning range, from 2.056 to 2.758 GHz. The phase noise of the frequency synthesiser is − 117.2 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz frequency offset from the 2.3 GHz carrier. The settling time is less than 50 μs, and the capacitance in the loop filter could be on-chip calibrated to ±3.9% precision. The whole frequency synthesiser only consumes 6.6 mA current from a 1.8 V power supply.

A Leakage-Compensated PLL in 65-nm CMOS Technology

A leakage compensation technique is presented to compensate the on-chip loop filter leakage for phase-locked loops in 65-nm complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor technology. Using the leakage compensation technique, the measured root-mean-square jitter is reduced to 3.10 ps when the output frequency is 950 MHz. This chip consumes 10 mW, and the active area is 0.14 mm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> .

A 2.5 Gb/s Run-Length-Tolerant Burst-Mode CDR Based on a 1/8th-Rate Dual Pulse Ring Oscillator

A 2.5 Gb/s burst-mode clock and data recovery (CDR) circuit is presented that uses a 1/8th-rate ring oscillator with two pulses running simultaneously that are phase independent. One ldquotunerdquo pulse sets the delay of the ring by phase locking it to a reference. The other ldquoclockrdquo pulse tracks the phase of the incoming data by a process of pulse removal and reinsertion. Because both pulses share the same ring, there is no frequency mismatch between the incoming data stream and the recovered clock in frequency synchronous systems, allowing for large data run lengths. A 1:8 data-demux clock is naturally generated by tapping the clock pulse along the ring. Phase acquisition is instantaneous from a single data edge. Run length tolerance is larger than 72 bits. The 0.6 mm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> 0.13 mum CMOS chip includes a CML-to-CMOS input buffer, PLL with on-chip loop filter, PRBS checker, 1:8 data demux, and eight output buffers. It has 2.7 UI <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">pp</sub> measured jitter tolerance at 100 kHz and consumes 42 mW from a single 1.2 V supply.

A 50.8–53-GHz Clock Generator Using a Harmonic-Locked PD in 0.13-$\mu$m CMOS

A 50.8-53-GHz clock generator with a quadruplicate-harmonic-locked phase detector (PD) is presented to achieve a low spur and a low reference frequency. The proposed quadruplicate-harmonic-locked PD, a low-voltage Colpitts voltage-controlled oscillator, and a wide-range divide-by-2 divider are also presented. This clock generator has been fabricated in a 0.13-mum process. The measured reference spur is -59.88 dBc at 51.02 GHz with an input reference frequency of 199.3 MHz. The area is 0.93 mm times 1 mm with the on-chip loop filter and pads. It dissipates 87 mW without buffers from a 1.5-V supply.

A Low-Leakage Open-Loop Frequency Synthesizer Allowing Small-Area On-Chip Loop Filter

A frequency synthesizer targeting low-power packet-based frequency-shift-keying (FSK) applications using open-loop modulation of the oscillator is presented. Unlike conventional implementations, the proposed synthesizer is open both when transmitting and receiving data. It is, therefore, possible to use a wide loop-filter bandwidth without violating the noise or spurious requirements. A wideband loop-filter can be implemented using small component values, allowing an on-chip loop filter. To handle the frequency drift associated with open-loop implementations, a low-leakage charge pump is proposed. The synthesizer is implemented using a 0.18-mum CMOS process. The total power consumption is 9 mW, and the circuit area including the voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) inductors and on-chip loop-filter is 0.32 mm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> . The measured frequency drift indicates a leakage current of below 2 fA.

A Wide-Bandwidth 2.4 GHz ISM Band Fractional-$N$ PLL With Adaptive Phase Noise Cancellation

A fast-settling adaptive calibration technique is presented that makes phase noise cancelling DeltaSigma fractional-N PLLs practical for the low reference frequencies commonly used in wireless communication systems. The technique is demonstrated as an enabling component of a 2.4 GHz ISM band CMOS PLL IC with a 730 kHz bandwidth, a 12 MHz reference, and an on-chip loop filter. In addition to the adaptive calibration technique, the IC incorporates a dynamic charge pump biasing technique to reduce power dissipation. The worst-case phase noise of the IC is -101 dBc/Hz and -124 dBc/Hz at 100 kHz and 3 MHz offsets, respectively, and the adaptive phase noise cancellation technique has a worst-case settling time of 35 mus . The IC is implemented in 0.18 CMOS technology. It measures 2.2 x 22 mm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> and its core circuitry consumes 20.9 mA from a 1.8 V supply.

Area-efficient and self-biased capacitor multiplier for on-chip loop filter

A self-biased capacitor multiplier is proposed to reduce the area of a large integrating capacitor in loop filters. A prototype Σ−Δ fractional-N frequency synthesiser including the capacitor multiplier is fabricated with a 0.35 µm BiCMOS process. The designed capacitor multiplier makes capacitance of 2.72 nF from an on-chip capacitor of 170 pF with current consumption of 240 µA at 2.8 V. The frequency synthesiser demonstrates the in-band phase noise of −79 dBc/Hz at 5 kHz offset.

A low-jitter PLL clock generator for microprocessors with lock range of 340-612 MHz

A fully integrated, phase-locked loop (PLL) clock generator/phase aligner for the POWER3 microprocessor has been designed using a 2.5-V, 0.40-/spl mu/m digital CMOS6S process. The PLL design supports multiple integer and noninteger frequency multiplication factors for both the processor clock and an L2 cache clock. The fully differential delay-interpolating voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) is tunable over a frequency range determined by programmable frequency limit settings, enhancing yield and application flexibility. PLL lock range for the maximum VCO frequency range settings is 340-612 MHz. The charge-pump current is programmable for additional control of the PLL loop dynamics. A differential on-chip loop filter with common-mode correction improves noise rejection. Cycle-cycle jitter measurements with the microprocessor actively executing instructions were 10.0 ps rms, 80 ps peak to peak (P-P) measured from the clock tree. Cycle-cycle jitter measured for the processor in a reset state with the clock tree active was 8.4 ps rms, 62 ps P-P. PLL area is 1040/spl times/640 /spl mu/m/sup 2/. Power dissipation is <100 mW.

A 1.6-GHz CMOS PLL with on-chip loop filter

A 1.6-GHz phase locked loop (PLL) has been fabricated in a 0.6-/spl mu/m CMOS technology. The PLL consists of an LC-tank circuit, divider, phase detector with charge pump, and an on-chip passive loop filter. When the oscillator is open loop, it exhibits -115 dBc/Hz phase noise at a 600-kHz offset from the carrier. The PLL occupies an active area of 1.6 mm/sup 2/ and dissipates 90 mW from a single 3-V supply.

A 27-mW CMOS fractional-N synthesizer using digital compensation for 2.5-Mb/s GFSK modulation

A digital compensation method and key circuits are presented that allow fractional-N synthesizers to be modulated at data rates greatly exceeding their bandwidth. Using this technique, a 1.8-GHz transmitter capable of digital frequency modulation at 2.5 Mb/s can be achieved with only two components: a frequency synthesizer and a digital transmit filter. A prototype transmitter was constructed to provide proof of concept of the method; its primary component is a custom fractional-N synthesizer fabricated in a 0.6-/spl mu/m CMOS process that consumes 27 mW. Key circuits on the custom IC are an on-chip loop filter that requires no tuning or external components, a digital MASH /spl Sigma/-/spl Delta/ modulator that achieves low power operation through pipelining, and an asynchronous, 64-modulus divider (prescaler). Measurements from the prototype indicate that it meets performance requirements of the digital enhanced cordless telecommunications (DECT) standard.