The design and analysis of a DLL-based frequency synthesizer for UWB application

A delay-locked loop (DLL)-based frequency synthesizer is designed for the ultrawideband (UWB) Mode-1 system. This frequency synthesizer with 528-MHz input reference frequency achieves less than 9.5-ns settling time by utilizing wide loop bandwidth and fast-settling architecture. Additionally, a discrete-time model of the DLL and an analytical model of phase noise of the delay line are proposed in this work. Experimental results show great consistency with predicted settling time and phase noise. The circuit has been fabricated in a 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS technology and consumes only 54 mW from a 1.8-V supply. It exhibits a sideband magnitude of -35.4 dBc and -120-dBc/Hz phase noise at the frequency offset of 1 MHz.     

A Low-Noise and Low-Power Frequency Synthesizer Using Offset Phase-Locked Loop in 0.13-$mu{rm m}$ CMOS

In this letter, a fractional-N frequency synthesizer based on an offset phase-locked loop (OPLL) architecture is presented. The proposed synthesizer achieves low-noise as the two low-pass filters that are inherent in the OPLL highly suppresses the quantization noise from the delta-sigma modulator. In addition, it consumes low power by employing charge-recycling technique in the sub-PLL. A prototype synthesizer implemented in 0.13 $mu{rm m}$ CMOS process achieves 9 dB of noise reduction compared to a conventional PLL while consuming 3.2 mW of power.      

一种具有相位噪声跟踪补偿的全数字锁相环频率合成器

为了实现频率合成器中的相位噪声跟踪补偿和降低全数字锁相环的复杂性,本文提出了一种新的基于全数字锁相环的频率合成器。它采用了一种低复杂度的数字鉴频鉴相器和非线性相位/频率判决电路以及数控振荡器,从而显著降低了硬件复杂性。同时结构中采用的非线性相位和频率判决电路能够很好地实现噪声跟踪和快速的相位/频率捕获,数控振荡器能够获得高的频率分辨率(大约6kHz)和大的线性频率调谐范围。通过采用90nm CMOS工艺制造的ADPLL实验结果表明,本文所提出的基于全数字锁相环的频率合成器能够实现从100kHz到6MHz的可控环路带宽和相当好的带内相位噪声跟踪性能。     

A 2.5-GHz DDFS-PLL With 1.8-MHz Bandwidth in 0.35-$mu$m CMOS

A wideband frequency synthesizer architecture is presented. The proposed topology employs a direct digital frequency synthesizer (DDFS) to control the output frequency of an offset-PLL. In this way, the synthesizer features a very fine frequency resolution, 24 Hz, as in delta-sigma fractional-N PLLs, but without being affected by the quantization-induced phase noise. This, in turn, allows enlarging the loop bandwidth. The frequency synthesizer is designed to be employed as a direct modulator for Bluetooth transmitter in a low-cost 0.35-mum CMOS technology. At 2.5GHz it achieves 1.8-MHz bandwidth, while the settling time within 30ppm for an 80-MHz step is 3 mus. The integrated phase noise gives less than 1 degree of rms phase error and the worst-case spur is 48dBc at 1 MHz, well below the specifications. Power dissipation is 120 mW for the PLL core, 50 mW for the DDFS plus DACs, and 19 mW for the GFSK modulator.     

A 1.5 V 7.656 GHz PLL with I/Q outputs for a UWB synthesizer

A fully integrated CMOS phase-locked loop (PLL) which can synthesize a quadrature output frequency of 7.656 GHz is presented.The proposed PLL can be employed as a building block for an MB-OFDM UWB frequency synthesizer.To achieve fast loop settling,integer-N architecture operating with 66 MHz reference frequency and wideband QVCO are implemented.I/Q carriers are generated by two bottom-series cross-coupled LC VCOs.Realized in 0.18μm CMOS technology,this PLL consumes 16 mA current (including buffers) from a 1.5 V supply and the phase noise is-109.6 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset.The measured oscillation frequency shows that the QVCO has a range of 6.95 to 8.73 GHz.The core circuit occupies an area of 1×0.5 mm2.     

Hybrid Dual-Mode Frequency Synthesis for Cognitive Multi-radio Front-Ends

This paper investigates a novel approach to reconfigurable frequency synthesis for flexible radio transceivers in future cognitive multi-radios. The frequency range covered by the proposed multi-radio synthesizer corresponds to the frequency bands of the most diffused wireless communication standards operating in the radio band ranging from 800 MHz to 6 GHz. A hybrid phase locked loop (PLL) based frequency synthesizer is proposed here and a novel switching protocol is presented and validated on an experimental evaluation board. The proposed architecture combines fractional and integer PLL modes of operation along with a switched loop filter topology. Compared to standard PLL techniques, the proposed configuration provides great flexibility options and moreover, it offers relatively low circuit complexity and low power consumption. The proposed architecture provides reconfigurability of the loop bandwidth, frequency resolution, phase noise and settling time performance and hence, it can adapt itself to diverse requirements given by the concerned wireless communication standards.     

A 35-mW 3.6-mm/sup 2/ fully integrated 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS GPS radio

A single-chip CMOS Global Positioning System (GPS) radio has been integrated using only a couple of external passive components for the input matching network and one external reference for the synthesizer. The receiver downconverts the GPS L1 signal at 1575.42 MHz to an IF of 9.45 MHz. The complete front-end and frequency synthesizer section have been integrated: low noise amplifier, image rejection mixer, IF active filter, and the full phase-locked loop synthesizer, including voltage-controlled oscillator and loop filter. The front-end measured performances are 81-dB maximum gain, 5.3-dB noise figure, and >30-dB image rejection. The synthesizer features a phase noise of -95 dBc/Hz at 1-MHz offset and a total integrated phase noise of less than 7/spl deg/ rms in the 500-Hz-1.5-MHz band. The front-end and the synthesizer draw, respectively, 11 and 9 mA from a 1.8-V supply. The architecture of the front-end and synthesizer has been geared to high level of integration and reduction of silicon area at the lowest possible power consumption. Consequently, the one reported here is the smallest and most integrated CMOS GPS receiver reported so far.     

一个自调谐,自适应的1.9GHz分数/整数频率综合器

本文提出了一个具有自调谐,自适应功能的1.9GHz的分数/整数锁相环频率综合器.该频率综合器采用模拟调谐和数字调谐相结合的技术来提高相位噪声性能.自适应环路被用来实现带宽自动调整,可以缩短环路的建立时间.通过打开或者关断 ΣΔ 调制器的输出来实现分数和整数分频两种工作模式,仅用一个可编程计数器实现吞脉冲分频器的功能.采用偏置滤波技术以及差分电感,在片压控振荡器具有很低的相位噪声;通过采用开关电容阵列,该压控振荡器可以工作在1.7GHz~2.1GHz的调谐范围.该频率综合器采用0.18 μ m,1.8V SMIC CMOS工艺实现.SpectreVerilog仿真表明:该频率综合器的环路带宽约为100kHz,在600kHz处的相位噪声优于-123dBc/Hz,具有小于15 μ s的锁定时间.     

The Design and Analysis of a Fully Integrated Multiplying DLL With Adaptive Current Tuning

A multiplying-DLL-based frequency synthesizer with a fully integrated loop capacitor employs an adaptive current-adjusting loop to generate a low-jitter clock. The nonidealities in the general impedance converter (GIC) which is used as the loop capacitor are thoroughly discussed. Additionally, the discrete-time model for the clock generator with adaptive current tuning is presented and the analysis of the loop stability is provided. The frequency synthesizer occupies an active area of 0.09 mm² in a 0.18-mum CMOS technology and consumes 9 mW from a 1.8-V supply. The measured rms jitter is 3.5 ps for a 229.5-MHz output clock.     

A stabilization technique for phase-locked frequency synthesizers

A stabilization technique is presented that relaxes the tradeoff between the settling speed and the magnitude of output sidebands in phase-locked frequency synthesizers. The method introduces a zero in the open-loop transfer function through the use of a discrete-time delay cell, obviating the need for resistors in the loop filter. A 2.4-GHz CMOS frequency synthesizer employing the technique settles in approximately 60 /spl mu/s with 1-MHz channel spacing while exhibiting a sideband magnitude of -58.7 dBc. Designed for Bluetooth applications and fabricated in a 0.25-/spl mu/m digital CMOS technology, the synthesizer achieves a phase noise of -112 dBc/Hz at 1-MHz offset and consumes 20 mW from a 2.5-V supply.     

An agile ISM band frequency synthesizer with built-in GMSK datamodulation

In this paper, a high-resolution fractional-N RF frequency synthesizer is presented which is controlled by a fourth-order digital sigma-delta modulator. The high resolution allows the synthesizer to be digitally modulated directly at RF. A simplified digital filter which makes use of sigma-delta quantized tap coefficients is included which provides built-in GMSK pulse shaping for data transmission. Quantization of the tap coefficients to single-bit values not only simplifies the filter architecture, but the fourth-order digital sigma-delta modulator as well. The synthesizer makes extensive use of custom VLSI, with only a simple off-chip loop filter and VCO required. The synthesizer operates from a single 3-V supply, and has low power consumption. Phase noise levels are less than -90 dBc/Hz at frequency offsets within the loop bandwidth. Spurious components are less than -90 dBc/Hz over a 19.6-MHz tuning range     

A Quantization Noise Pushing Technique for $DeltaSigma$ Fractional- $N$ Frequency Synthesizers

This paper demonstrates our proposed quantization noise pushing technique, which moves the quantization noise to higher frequencies and utilizes the low-pass characteristic of the phased-lock loop (PLL) to further suppress the quantization noise. In addition, it can separate the operating frequency of the DeltaSigma modulator and the comparison frequency of the phase/frequency detector (PFD) so as to reduce the loop gain of the PLL and lower the in-band phase noise. This synthesizer was fabricated using the UMC 0.18-mum CMOS process. The chip area measures 0.85 mm². The supply voltage is 2 V, corresponding to a total power consumption of 26.8 mW. The experimental results show that, with this technique, the in-band phase noise can be lowered by 12 dB, while the out-of-band phase noise can be reduced by more than 15 dB, compared to a synthesizer with the same PFD comparison frequency.     

A fully integrated CMOS frequency synthesizer with charge-averagingcharge pump and dual-path loop filter for PCS- and cellular-CDMAwireless systems

A fully integrated CMOS frequency synthesizer for PCS- and cellular-CDMA systems is integrated in a 0.35-μm CMOS technology. The proposed charge-averaging charge pump scheme suppresses fractional spurs to the level of noise, and the improved architecture of the dual-path loop filter makes it possible to implement a large time constant on a chip. With current-feedback bias and coarse tuning, a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) enables constant power and low gain of the VCO. Power dissipation is 60 mW with a 3.0-V supply. The proposed frequency synthesizer provides 10-kHz channel spacing with phase noise of -121 dBc/Hz in the PCS band and -127 dBc/Hz in the cellular band, both at 1-MHz offset frequency     

Closed-Loop Nonlinear Modeling of Wideband$SigmaDelta$Fractional-$N$Frequency Synthesizers

Wideband low-noise$SigmaDelta$fractional-$N$synthesizers pose several design challenges due to the nonlinear time-varying nature of synthesizer building blocks such as phase frequency detectors (PFDs), charge pump, and frequency dividers. Loop nonlinearities can increase close-in phase noise and enhance spurious tones due to intermodulation of high-frequency quantization noise and tonal content; therefore, an accurate simulation model is critical for successful implementation of loop parameters and bandwidth widening techniques. In this paper a closed-loop nonlinear simulation model for fractional-$N$synthesizers is presented. Inherent nonuniform sampling of the PFD is modeled through an event-driven dual-iteration-based technique. The proposed technique generates a vector of piecewise linear time–voltage pairs, defining the voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) control voltage. This method also lends itself to modeling of cyclostationary thermal and flicker noise generated by time-varying charge-pump current pulses. A flexible third-order$SigmaDelta$modulated RF synthesizer core with integrated loop filter and LC-tank VCO is designed and fabricated in 0.13-$muhbox m$CMOS process in order to validate the technique experimentally. The proposed modeling technique was able to predict in-band spur power levels with 1.8-dB accuracy, and spur frequency offsets with lower than 400-Hz accuracy with several programmable nonidealities enabled.     

Comparison frequency doubling and charge pump matching techniques for dual-band /spl Delta//spl Sigma/ fractional-N frequency synthesizer

The frequency synthesizer with two LC-VCOs is fully integrated in a 0.35-/spl mu/m CMOS technology. In supporting dual bands, all building blocks except VCOs are shared. A current compensation scheme using a replica charge pump improves the linearity of the frequency synthesizer and, thus, suppresses spurious tones. To reduce the quantization noise from a /spl Delta//spl Sigma/ modulator and the noise from the building blocks except the VCO, the proposed architecture uses a frequency doubler with a noise-insensitive duty-cycle correction circuit (DCC) in the reference clock path. Power consumption is 37.8 mW with a 2.7-V supply. The proposed frequency synthesizer supports 10-kHz channel spacing with the measured phase noise of -114 dBc/Hz and -141 dBc/Hz at 100-kHz and 1.25-MHz offsets, respectively, in the PCS band. The fractional spurious tone at 10-kHz offset is under -54 dBc.     

A 0.13μm CMOS △∑ fractional-N frequency synthesizer for WLAN transceivers

A fractional-N frequency synthesizer fabricated in a 0.13 μm CMOS technology is presented for the application of IEEE 802.11 b/g wireless local area network (WLAN) transceivers.A monolithic LC voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) is implemented with an on-chip symmetric inductor.The fractional-N frequency divider consists of a pulse swallow frequency divider and a 3rd-order multistage noise shaping (MASH) △ ∑ modulator with noise-shaped dithering techniques.Measurement results show that in all channels,phase noise of the synthesizer achieves -93 dBc/Hz and -118 dBc/Hz in band and out of band respectively with a phase-frequency detector (PFD) frequency of 20 MHz and a loop bandwidth of 100 kHz.The integrated RMS phase error is no more than 0.8°.The proposed synthesizer consumes 8.4 mW from a 1.2 V supply and occupies an area of 0.86 mm2.     

一种宽带低相噪频率合成器的设计方法研究

提出了一种宽带低相噪频率合成器的设计方法.采用了数字锁相技术,该锁相技术主要由锁相环（phase locked loop,PLL）芯片、有源环路滤波器、宽带压控振荡器和外置宽带分频器等构成,实现了10~20 GHz范围内任意频率输出,具有输出频率宽、相位噪声低、集成度高、功耗低和成本低等优点.最后对该PLL电路杂散抑制和相位噪声的指标进行了测试,测试结果表明该PLL输出10 GHz时相位噪声优于-109 dBc/Hz@1 kHz,该指标与直接式频率合成器实现的指标相当.     

具有自校准压控振荡器和精确自动频率校准算法的低噪声频率合成器

A low noise phase locked loop （PLL） frequency synthesizer implemented in 65 nm CMOS technology is introduced. A VCO noise reduction method suited for short channel design is proposed to minimize PLL output phase noise. A self-calibrated voltage controlled oscillator is proposed in cooperation with the automatic frequency calibration circuit, whose accurate binary search algorithm helps reduce the VCO tuning curve coverage, which reduces the VCO noise contribution at PLL output phase noise. A low noise, charge pump is also introduced to extend the tuning voltage range of the proposed VCO, which further reduces its phase noise contribution. The frequency synthesizer generates 9.75-11.5 GHz high frequency wide band local oscillator （LO） carriers. Tested 11.5 GHz LO bears a phase noise of-104 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz frequency offset. The total power dissipation of the proposed frequency synthesizer is 48 mW. The area of the proposed frequency synthesizer is 0.3 mm^2, including bias circuits and buffers.     

CMOS毫米波低相噪级联双锁相环频率综合器设计北大核心

采用65 nm CMOS工艺，设计了一种低相噪级联双锁相环毫米波频率综合器。该频率综合器采用两级锁相环级联的结构，减轻了单级毫米波频率综合器带内和带外相位噪声受带宽的影响。时间数字转换器采用游标卡尺型结构，改善了PVT变化下时间数字转换器的量化线性度。数字环路滤波器采用自动环路增益控制技术来自适应调节环路带宽，以提高频率综合器的性能。振荡器采用噪声循环技术，减小了注入到谐振腔的噪声，进而改善了振荡器的相位噪声。后仿真结果表明，在1.2 V电源电压下，该频率综合器可输出的频率范围为22～26 GHz,在输出频率为24 GHz时，相位噪声为-104.8 dBc/Hz@1 MHz,功耗为46.8 mW。     

A /spl Sigma/-/spl Delta/ fractional-N frequency synthesizer using a wide-band integrated VCO and a fast AFC technique for GSM/GPRS/WCDMA applications

A fractional-N frequency synthesizer (FNFS) in a 0.5-/spl mu/m SiGe BiCMOS technology is implemented. In order to operate in a wide-band frequency range, a switched-capacitors bank LC tank voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) and an adaptive frequency calibration (AFC) technique are used. The measured VCO tuning range is as wide as 600 MHz (40%) from 1.15 to 1.75 GHz with a tuning sensitivity from 5.2 to 17.5 MHz/V. A 3-bit fourth-order /spl Sigma/-/spl Delta/ modulator is used to reduce out-of-band phase noise and to meet a frequency resolution of less than 3 Hz as well as agile switching time. The experimental results show -80 dBc/Hz in-band phase noise within the loop bandwidth of 25 kHz and -129 dBc/Hz out-of-band phase noise at 400-kHz offset frequency. The fractional spurious is less than -70 dBc/Hz at 300-kHz offset frequency and the reference spur is -75 dBc/Hz. The lock time is less than 150 /spl mu/s. The proposed synthesizer consumes 19.5 mA from a single 2.8-V supply voltage and meets the requirements of GSM/GPRS/WCDMA applications.