A clock generator with cascaded dynamic frequency counting loops for wide multiplication range applications

This work presents a clock generator with cascaded dynamic frequency counting (DFC) loops for wide multiplication range applications. The DFC loop, which uses variable time period to estimate and tune the frequency of the digitally controlled oscillator (DCO), enhances the resolution of frequency detection. The conventional phase-frequency detector (PFD) and programmable divider are replaced with a digital arithmetic comparator and a DCO timing counter. The value in the DCO timing counter is separated into quotient and remainder vectors. A threshold region is set in the remainder vector to reduce the influence of jitter variation in frequency detection. The loop stability can be retained by cascading two DFC loops when the multiplication factor (N) is large. The proposed clock generator achieves a multiplication range from 4 to 13 888 with output peak-to-peak jitter less than 2.8% of clock period. A test chip for the proposed clock generator is fabricated in 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS process with core area of 0.16 mm/sup 2/. Power consumption is 15 mW @ 378 MHz with 1.8-V supply voltage.     

A 2.5-10-GHz clock multiplier unit with 0.22-ps RMS jitter in standard 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS

This paper demonstrates a low-jitter clock multiplier unit that generates a 10-GHz output clock from a 2.5-GHz reference clock. An integrated 10-GHz LC oscillator is locked to the input clock, using a simple and fast phase detector circuit that overcomes the speed limitation of a conventional tri-state phase frequency detector due to the lack of an internal feedback loop. A frequency detector guarantees PLL locking without degenerating jitter performance. The clock multiplier is implemented in a standard 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS process and achieves a jitter generation of 0.22 ps while consuming 100 mW power from a 1.8-V supply.     

A low-power multiplying DLL for low-jitter multigigahertz clock generation in highly integrated digital chips

A multiplying delay-locked loop (MDLL) for high-speed on-chip clock generation that overcomes the drawbacks of phase-locked loops (PLLs) such as jitter accumulation, high sensitivity to supply, and substrate noise is described. The MDLL design removes such drawbacks while maintaining the advantages of a PLL for multirate frequency multiplication. This design also uses a supply regulator and filter to further reduce on-chip jitter generation. The MDLL, implemented in 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS technology, occupies a total active area of 0.05 mm/sup 2/ and has a speed range of 200 MHz to 2 GHz with selectable multiplication ratios of M=4, 5, 8, 10. The complete synthesizer, including the output clock buffers, dissipates 12 mW from a 1.8-V supply at 2.0 GHz. This MDLL architecture is used as a clock multiplier integrated on a single chip for a 72/spl times/72 STS-1 grooming switch and has a jitter of 1.73 ps (rms) and 13.1 ps (pk-pk).     

A Low-Power Digital DLL-Based Clock Generator in Open-Loop Mode

This paper presents a low-power digital DLL-based clock generator. Once the DLL is locked, it operates in open-loop mode to reduce deterministic clock jitter and the power dissipation caused by DLL dithering. To keep track of any potential phase error introduced by environmental variations, a compensation mechanism is employed. In addition, a robust DLL-based frequency multiplication technique is proposed. The DLL-based clock generator is designed and fabricated in a 90 nm CMOS process in two different versions. Utilizing the proposed technique, the output jitter caused by DLL dithering is reduced significantly. Furthermore, the measured total power savings in the open-loop mode in comparison with the conventional closed-loop operation is about 14%.      

A wide-range delay-locked loop with a fixed latency of one clock cycle

A delay-locked loop (DLL) with wide-range operation and fixed latency of one clock cycle is proposed. This DLL uses a phase selection circuit and a start-controlled circuit to enlarge the operating frequency range and eliminate harmonic locking problems. Theoretically, the operating frequency range of the DLL can be from 1/(N/spl times/T/sub Dmax/) to 1/(3T/sub Dmin/), where T/sub Dmin/ and T/sub Dmax/ are the minimum and maximum delay of a delay cell, respectively, and N is the number of delay cells used in the delay line. Fabricated in a 0.35 /spl mu/m single-poly triple-metal CMOS process, the measurement results show that the proposed DLL can operate from 6 to 130 MHz, and the total delay time between input and output of this DLL is just one clock cycle. From the entire operating frequency range, the maximum rms jitter does not exceed 25 ps. The DLL occupies an active area of 880 /spl mu/m/spl times/515 /spl mu/m and consumes a maximum power of 132 mW at 130 MHz.     

A wide-range all digital DLL for multiphase clock generation

This paper presents a wide-range all digital delay-locked loop (DLL) for multiphase clock generation. Using the phase compensation circuit (PCC), the large phase difference is compensated in the initial step. Thus, the proposed solution can overcome the false-lock problem in conventional designs, and keeps the same benefits of conventional DLLs such as good jitter performance and multiphase clock generation. Furthermore, the proposed all digital multiphase clock generator has wide ranges and is not related to specific process. Thus, it can reduce the design time and design complexity in many different applications. The DLL is implemented in a 0.13 μm CMOS process. The experimental results show that the proposal has a wide frequency range. The peak-to-peak jitter is less than 7.7 ps over the operating frequency range of 200 MHz-1 GHz and the power consumption is 4.8 mW at 1 GHz. The maximum lock time is 20 clock cycles.     

Spread spectrum clock Generator with delay cell array to reduce electromagnetic interference

In high-speed digital systems, most of the electromagnetic interference (EMI) from the system is caused by high-speed digital clock drivers and synchronized circuits. To reduce the EMI from the system clocks, spread spectrum clock (SSC) techniques that modulate the system clock frequency have been proposed. A conventional SSC generator (SSCG) has been implemented with a phase locked loop (PLL) by controlling a period jitter. However, the conventional SSCG with PLL becomes more difficult to implement at higher clock frequencies, in the gigahertz range, because of the random period jitter of the PLL. Furthermore, the attenuation of EMI is decreased due to the random period jitter of the PLL. To overcome the problems associated with the random period jitter, we propose an SSCG with a delay cell array (DCA), which controls the position of clock transitions with a triangular modulation profile. Measurement and simulation have demonstrated that the proposed SSCG with DCA is easier to implement and more effective in attenuating the EMI compared with the conventional SSCG with PLL. The proposed SSCG with DCA was implemented on a chip using a 0.35-/spl mu/m CMOS process and achieved a 9-dB attenuation of the EMI at 390 MHz.     

A second-order semidigital clock recovery circuit based on injection locking

A compact (1 mm /spl times/ 160 /spl mu/m) and low-power (80-mW) 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS 3.125-Gb/s clock and data recovery circuit is described. The circuit utilizes injection locking to filter out high-frequency reference clock jitter and multiplying delay-locked loop duty-cycle distortions. The injection-locked slave oscillator output can have its output clocks interpolated by current steering the injecting clocks. A second-order clock and data recovery is introduced to perform the interpolation and is capable of tracking frequency offsets while exhibiting low phase wander.     

A 10-Gb/s CMOS clock and data recovery circuit with a half-rate binary phase/frequency detector

A 10-Gb/s phase-locked clock and data recovery circuit incorporates a multiphase LC oscillator and a half-rate phase/frequency detector with automatic data retiming. Fabricated in 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS technology in an area of 1.75/spl times/1.55 mm/sup 2/, the circuit exhibits a capture range of 1.43 GHz, an rms jitter of 0.8 ps, a peak-to-peak jitter of 9.9 ps, and a bit error rate of 10/sup -9/ with a pseudorandom bit sequence of 2/sup 23/-1. The power dissipation excluding the output buffers is 91 mW from a 1.8-V supply.     

A 120-MHz–1.8-GHz CMOS DLL-Based Clock Generator for Dynamic Frequency Scaling

A delay-locked loop (DLL)-based clock generator for dynamic frequency scaling has been developed in a 0.35-$muhbox m$CMOS technology. The proposed clock generator can generate clock signals ranging from 120 MHz to 1.8 GHz and change the frequency dynamically in a short time. If the clock generator scales its output frequency dynamically by programming with the same last bit, it takes only one clock cycle to lock. In addition, the clock generator inherits advantages of a DLL. The proposed DLL-based clock generator occupies 0.07$hbox mm^2$and has a peak-to-peak jitter of$pm $6.6 ps at 1.3 GHz.     

A wide-range and fast-locking all-digital cycle-controlled delay-locked loop

An all-digital cycle-controlled delay-locked loop (DLL) is presented to achieve wide range operation, fast lock and process immunity. Utilizing the cycle-controlled delay unit, the proposed DLL reuses the delay units to enlarge the operating frequency range rather than cascade a huge number of delay units. Adopting binary search scheme, the two-step successive-approximation-register (SAR) controller ensures the proposed DLL to lock the input clock within 32 clock cycles regardless of input frequencies. The DLL operates in open-loop fashion once lock occurs in order to achieve low jitter operation with small area and low power dissipation. Since the DLL will not track temperature or supply variations once it is in lock, it is best suited for burst mode operation. Given a supplied reference input with 50% duty cycle, the DLL generates an output clock with the duty cycle of nearly 50% over the entire operating frequency range. Fabricated in a 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS one-poly six-metal (1P6M) technology, the experimental prototype exhibits a wide locking range from 2 to 700 MHz while consuming a maximum power of 23 mW. When the operating frequency is 700 MHz, the measured peak-to-peak jitter and rms jitter is 17.6 ps and 2.0 ps, respectively.     

A 2.5-3.125-Gb/s quad transceiver with second-order analog DLL-based CDRs

This paper describes a 2.5-3.125-Gb/s quad transceiver with second-order analog delay-locked loop (DLL)-based clock and data recovery (CDR) circuits. A phase-locked loop (PLL) is shared between receive (RX) and transmit (TX) chains. On each RX channel, an amplifier with user-programmable input equalization precedes the CDR. Retimed data then goes to an 1:8/1:10 deserializer. On the TX side, parallel data is serialized into a high-speed bitstream with an 8:1/10:1 multiplexer. The serial data is introduced off-chip through a high-speed CML buffer having single-tap pre-emphasis. Proposed DLL-based CDR can tolerate large frequency offsets with no jitter tolerance degradation due to its second-order PLL-like nature. Also, this study introduces an improved charge-pump and an improved phase-interpolator. Fabricated in a 0.15-/spl mu/m CMOS process, the 1.9-mm/sup 2/ transceiver front-end operates from a single 1.2-V supply and consumes 65-mW/channel of which 32 mW is due to the CDR. CDR jitter generation and high-frequency jitter tolerance are 5.9 ps-rms and 0.5 UI, respectively, for 3.125 Gb/s, 2/sup 23/-1 PRBS input data with 800-ppm frequency offset.     

A quad 0.6-3.2 Gb/s/channel interference-free CMOS transceiver for backplane serial link

A quad-channel 0.6-3.2 Gb/s/channnel transceiver using eight independent phase-locked loops (PLLs) shows a 1-ps rms random jitter performance without interchannel interference. The PLL employs a folded starved inverter with high supply/substrate noise immunity and an analog coarse-tuning scheme for both seamless frequency acquisition and N-fold voltage-controlled-oscillator (VCO) gain reduction. A fixed-interval charge pumping is adopted for wide pumping-current range and large jitter tolerance. A wide-range delayed-locked loop (DLL) is utilized as a clock and reset generator for an elastic buffer. The transceiver, implemented in a 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS technology, operates across a 30-in FR-4 backplane up to 3.2 Gb/s/ch with a bit-error rate of less than 10/sup -13/.     

Low jitter and multirate clock and data recovery circuit using a MSADLL for chip-to-chip interconnection

A fully integrated clock and data recovery circuit (CDR) using a multiplying shifted-averaging delay locked loop and a rate-detection circuit is presented. It can achieve wide range and low jitter operation. A duty-cycle-insensitive phase detector is also proposed to mitigate the dependency on clock duty cycle variations. The experimental prototype has been fabricated in a 0.25-/spl mu/m 1P5M CMOS technology and occupies an active area of 2.89 mm/sup 2/. The measured CDR could operate from 125 Mb/s to 2.0 Gb/s with a bit error rate better than 10/sup -12/ from a 2.5-V supply. Over the entire operating frequency range, the maximum rms jitter of the recovered clock is less than 4 ps.     

An all-digital PLL for frequency multiplication by 4 to 1022 with seven-cycle lock time

An all-digital phase-locked loop (PLL) circuit in which resolution in the phase detector and digitally controlled oscillator (DCO) exactly matches the gate-delay time is presented. The pulse delay circuit is connected in a ring shape with 32 inverters (2/sup 5/ inverters). With the inverter gate-delay time as the time base, the pulse phase difference is detected simultaneously with the generation of the output clock. In this system, the phase detector and oscillator share a single ring-delay-line (RDL). This means the resolution is the same at all times, making a high-speed response possible. In a prototype integrated circuit (IC) using 0.65-/spl mu/m CMOS, the generation of a frequency multiplication clock was achieved with four reference clocks, and that of a phase-locked clock with seven reference clocks, for a high-speed response. The cell size was 1.08 /spl times/ 1.08 mm/sup 2/, and the output clock frequency had a wide range of 50 kHz/spl sim/60 MHz. The multiplication range of the clock frequency was also a very wide 4/spl sim/1022, and a high level of precision was achieved with a clock jitter standard deviation of 234 ps. This digital PLL can withstand a broad range of operating environments, from -30/spl deg/C/spl sim/140/spl deg/C, and is suitable for making a programmable clock generator on a chip.     

A Phase‐Locked Loop with Embedded Analog‐to‐Digital Converter for Digital Control

A phase‐locked loop (PLL) is described which is operable from 0.4 GHz to 1.2 GHz. The PLL has basically the same architecture as the conventional analog PLL except the locking information is stored as digital code. An analog‐to‐digital converter is embedded in the PLL, converting the analog loop filter output to digital code. Because the locking information is stored as digital code, the PLL can be turned off during power‐down mode while avoiding long wake‐up time. The PLL implemented in a 0.18 µm CMOS process occupies 0.35 mm² active area. From a 1.8 V supply, it consumes 59 mW and 984 µW during the normal and power‐down modes, respectively. The measured rms jitter of the output clock is 16.8 ps at 1.2 GHz.     

40-Gb/s optical packet clock recovery with simultaneous reshaping using a traveling-wave electroabsorption modulator-based ring oscillator

An injection-locking traveling-wave electroabsorption modulator-based ring oscillator is demonstrated to perform optical clock recovery and simultaneous reshaping of 40-Gb/s optical packets. The transient response analysis and experimental results show strong injection and short loop length reduce the locking time to within 0.3 /spl mu/s. The recovered packet optical clock has 532-fs timing jitter.     

An All-Digital Fast-Locking Programmable DLL-Based Clock Generator

An all-digital fast-locking programmable DLL-based clock generator is presented. By resetting the output clock every two input clock periods, the initial minimal delay constraint in the conventional architecture is eliminated. Compared with the previous work, the short locking time is also achieved. The proposed circuit has been fabricated in 0.35-$mu$ m CMOS process and occupies the active area of 0.216 ${hbox {mm}}^{2}$. The clock multiplication ratio is programmed from 2 to 15. The frequency ranges of the input and output clocks are 4 $sim$ 200 MHz and 60 $sim$ 450 MHz, respectively. It dissipates less than 17 mW at all operating frequencies from a 3.3-V supply.      

2.488 Gbit/s时钟数据恢复电路的设计

利用Cadence集成电路设计软件,基于SMIC 0.18 μm 1P6M CMOS工艺,设计了一款2.488 Gbit/s三阶电荷泵锁相环型时钟数据恢复(CDR)电路.该CDR电路采用双环路结构实现,为了增加整个环路的捕获范围及减少锁定时间,在锁相环(PLL)的基础上增加了一个带参考时钟的辅助锁频环,由锁定检测环路实时监控频率误差实现双环路的切换.整个电路由鉴相器、鉴频鉴相器、电荷泵、环路滤波器和压控振荡器组成.后仿真结果表明,系统电源电压为1.8V,在2.488 Gbit/s速率的非归零(NRZ)码输入数据下,恢复数据的抖动峰值为14.6 ps,锁定时间为1.5μs,功耗为60 mW,核心版图面积为566 μm×448μm.     

A 20-Gb/s 0.13-/spl mu/m CMOS serial link transmitter using an LC-PLL to directly drive the output multiplexer

A 20-Gb/s transmitter is implemented in 0.13-/spl mu/m CMOS technology. An on-die 10-GHz LC oscillator phase-locked loop (PLL) creates two sinusoidal 10-GHz complementary clock phases as well as eight 2.5-GHz interleaved feedback divider clock phases. After a 2/sup 20/-1 pseudorandom bit sequence generator (PRBS) creates eight 2.5-Gb/s data streams, the eight 2.5-GHz interleaved clocks 4:1 multiplex the eight 2.5-Gb/s data streams to two 10-Gb/s data streams. 10-GHz analog sample-and-hold circuits retime the two 10-Gb/s data streams to be in phase with the 10-GHz complementary clocks. Two-tap equalization of the 10-Gb/s data streams compensate for bandwidth rolloff of the 10-Gb/s data outputs at the 10-GHz analog latches. A final 20-Gb/s 2:1 output multiplexer, clocked by the complementary 10-GHz clock phases, creates 20-Gb/s data from the two retimed 10-Gb/s data streams. The LC-VCO is integrated with the output multiplexer and analog latches, resonating the load and eliminating the need for clock buffers, reducing power supply induced jitter and static phase mismatch. Power, active die area, and jitter (rms/pk-pk) are 165 mW, 650 /spl mu/m/spl times/350 /spl mu/m, and 2.37 ps/15 ps, respectively.