Maxlinear Asia Singapore Pte Ltd

Pmc-Sierra US, Inc.

Microsemi Storage Solutions (u.s.), Inc.

Pmc-Sierra, Inc.

Microsemi Solutions (US), Inc.

Microchip Technology Inc.

Microsemi Storage Solutions, Inc.

Hormoz Djahanshahi

Srinivasa Rao Madala

Mark Hiebert

Stanley Ho

William Michael Lye

Su-Tarn Lim

Kenneth Allan Townsend

Guillaume Fortin

Jean-Francois Delage

Bharath Kumar Singareddy

Masoud Ghoreishi Madiseh

Rod Zavari

Graeme Barclay Boyd

Victor Lee

Mohammad Shahidzadeh Mahani

Siddhartha Hazra

Amir Hossein Masnadi Shirazi Nejad

Kumar Baratj Singareddy

One or more examples relate, generally to supply voltage based or temperature based fine control of a tunable oscillator of a PLL. An associated method includes: receiving one or more values indicative of temperature or supply voltage of a phase-locked loop (PLL); setting a digital fine-tuning control code to an initialization code, the initialization code at least partially based on the received one or more values indicative of temperature or supply voltage of the PLL, wherein the digital fine-tuning control code for setting a number of tuning-elements within a fine bank of a tunable oscillator; and starting, with the set digital fine-tuning control code, a process to set an initial frequency of the oscillator at or close to a target frequency. The process may be a calibration process performed before initially acquiring lock or re-acquiring lock.

Supply voltage based or temperature based fine control of a tunable oscillator of a PLL

A multimode, multicore inductor-capacitor (LC) oscillator having an increased oscillation frequency tuning range, and related method, are provided. The oscillation frequency tuning range of existing oscillators is limited. LC oscillators are known to have very low phase noise but a narrow frequency tuning range. The present oscillator has at least two LC oscillator cores and is capable of operating in multiple different modes of oscillation thereby increasing its overall oscillation frequency tuning range. A set of programmable amplifier pairs is used to force particular relative oscillation phases at the nodes of the multiple cores of the oscillator to realize one or more additional modes of oscillation for the oscillator. The additional oscillation mode increases the frequency tuning range of the oscillator.

Method and apparatus for multimode wideband oscillator

Methods and systems are provided for calibrating voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs). frequency control information, relating to output frequency of a VCO, which varies based on changes in operational conditions, may be determined. The frequency control information enables indicating the output frequency within a range of allowable values for control inputs and a range of expected values based on the operational conditions. For each control input setting, calibration control information for a calibration voltage associated with a control input, may be determined, based on the frequency control information, with respect to the operational conditions, to generate a constant output frequency. The operational conditions may be assessed, and a calibration voltage corresponding to the assessed operational conditions may be determined. The calibration voltage may be applied, and based on applying the calibration voltage, a tuning control input for tuning the constant output frequency may be determined and applied to the VCO.

System and method for voltage-controlled oscillator calibration

The present disclosure relates to a reconfigurable multicore inductor capacitor (LC) oscillator comprising a plurality of oscillator cores. The oscillator may be configured at run-time, at manufacturing, or at production, which may allow for the tailoring of operating characteristics of the oscillator, such as phase noise, electromagnetic interference, or power consumption, for a specific application after production. The cores are coupled through an interconnect network to a common electrical signal output. A subset of the cores may be selectively enabled while the remainder of the cores is disabled. The ability to enable only a subset of the cores allows the total number of enabled cores to be reconfigurable. Furthermore, the direction in which oscillation current flows through the inductor of the cores may be configured. Reconfiguring the number of enabled cores and/or the oscillation current direction in the cores allow operating characteristics of the oscillator to be tailored after production.

Method and apparatus for reconfigurable multicore oscillator

Methods and systems are provided for adaptively configuring voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) arrays, such as to reduce mismatches among the VCOs. A plurality of voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs), connected in parallel to a common control input, and with each VCO outputting an oscillating signal based on the common control input and an adjustment input, may be configured to reduce mismatches among the VCOs. The plurality of VCO may be configured by adjusting at least one operational parameter applicable to interconnection paths connecting outputs of the plurality of VCOs; measuring a mismatch between signals at the outputs of the plurality of VCOs with respect to a first signal parameter; and adjusting a first operational parameter applicable to one or more of the plurality of VCOs to reduce mismatch between signals at the outputs of the plurality of VCOs with respect to a first signal parameter.

Method and apparatus for controlling mismatch in a voltage controlled oscillator array

Method and systems are provided for voltage-controlling and tuning of oscillators. An oscillator may comprise comprises an oscillator core configured for contributing gain to oscillations generated in the oscillator and a frequency tuning network connected between the oscillator core and a signal source that provides an input signal for creating the oscillations in the oscillator. The frequency tuning network may be configured for tuning frequency of the oscillations, to inhibit amplifying a first capacitance from the oscillator core and to amplify a second capacitance from the frequency tuning network. The frequency of oscillations may be tuned by varying a capacitance, and isolating one or more of noise sources or parasitic capacitances from the tuning network.

Voltage-controlled oscillator and a method for tuning oscillations

A cross-coupled complementary balanced voltage-controlled oscillator and a method for operating same. The oscillator comprises an electro-mechanical resonator, and an oscillator core. The oscillator core comprises capacitvely cross-coupled complementary inverters and a resistor network. The oscillator may comprise a frequency tuning network having inductors for increasing the tuning range. The capacitance inhibit the inverters from latching to a static direct current state. The resistor network forms a high pass filter with the capacitance to inhibit relaxation oscillations. The method comprises enabling the resistor network to form a high pass filter and starting balanced oscillations in the oscillator, the capacitance of the high pass filter for inhibiting latching, and the high pass filter for inhibiting relaxation oscillations. The method may comprise tuning the frequency by varying the capacitance of the oscillator.

Electro-mechanical voltage-controlled oscillator and a method for generating tunable balanced oscillations

A method and system are provided for reducing mismatch between oscillators in an LC VCO array. In an implementation, a method comprises measuring the mismatch between the driver strengths, by measuring the corresponding oscillation amplitudes, and a mismatch between the resonance frequency of each LC VCO in the array of VCOs, and adjusting each LC VCO to reduce the measured amplitude and frequency mismatches. In an implementation, the measuring and adjusting is performed once to calibrate the array of VCOs. In another implementation, the system measures and adjusts the array of VCOs repeatedly. In another implementation, the LC VCO array has a master VCO and a plurality of slave VCOs connected to the master VCO by slave PLLs to reduce phase noise caused by mismatches.

An oscillator and method for generating a signal are provided. The oscillator comprises an electro-mechanical resonator and a reconfigurable oscillator driver. The reconfigurable oscillator driver starts the oscillator in single-ended mode to avoid latching and transitions the oscillator to differential mode in such a manner as to sustain oscillations therein. The reconfigurable oscillator driver may comprise two back-to-back banks of inverters and an adjustable feedback resistor. In single-ended mode, one bank is disabled and the other bank is enabled. To transition to differential mode and improve the quality of the signal, the number of enabled inverters is equalized in both banks.

Electro-mechanical oscillator and method for generating a signal

The present disclosure provides methods and apparatus for dynamically adjusting the common mode voltage at the LC tank node and/or the power supply voltage of a VCO with an LC resonator in order to force oscillation start-up by temporarily increasing gain. Methods according to certain preferred embodiments may reduce power consumption and/or overcome threshold voltage limitations and/or increase frequency and frequency tuning range during normal (steady-state) operation.

Voltage controlled oscillator with common mode adjustment start-up

A system and method for calibrating a Voltage-Controlled Oscillator (VCO) having both fine-tuning control and coarse-tuning control. The VCO frequency can vary monotonically with changes in each of one or more operational conditions. The calibration method determines the coarse-tuning control setting for the VCO at system start-up. The method comprises generating frequency characterization data, generating a polynomial function from the characterization data, calculating the fine-tuning control voltage based on the polynomial function and a measurement of the operational conditions, and sweeping through all the coarse-tuning control settings to determine the coarse-tuning control setting that generates the closest VCO frequency to a target frequency when using the calculated fine-tuning control voltage.

A cross-coupled complementary balanced electro-mechanical oscillator and a method for generating balanced oscillations. The oscillator comprises an electro-mechanical resonator connected to an oscillator core. The oscillator core comprises capacitively cross-coupled complementary programmable inverters and a resistor network. The capacitors inhibit the inverters from latching to a non-oscillatory direct-current (DC) state. The resistor network forms a high pass filter with the capacitors to inhibit relaxation oscillations. The inverters are programmable such that their gain can be varied over time to avoid parasitic oscillations. The oscillator may be frequency-tunable. The method comprises starting balanced oscillations in the oscillator with a low gain to inhibit high-frequency parasitic oscillation modes, inhibiting latching to a DC state using a capacitance, and inhibiting relaxation oscillations using a high pass filter, and varying gain over time to improve phase noise performance. The oscillator may comprise a clock source to excite oscillations in the oscillator core at a frequency close to the resonator frequency to inhibit unwanted oscillations.

Variable gain electro-mechanical oscillator and method for starting balanced oscillations

A voltage-controlled oscillator and a method for tuning oscillations. The oscillator comprises a resonator input connected to an oscillator core and a frequency tuning network. The oscillator core and resonator input are isolated from the frequency tuning network by inductors. The method comprises generating oscillations, tuning the frequency of the oscillations by varying a capacitance, and isolating one or more of noise sources or parasitic capacitances from the tuning network.

An oscillator and method for generating a signal are provided. The oscillator comprises an electro-mechanical resonator and a reconfigurable oscillator driver. The reconfigurable oscillator driver starts the oscillator in single-ended mode to avoid latching and transitions the oscillator to differential mode in such a manner as to sustain oscillations therein. The reconfigurable oscillator driver comprises two back-to-back banks of inverters and an adjustable feedback resistor. In single-ended mode, one bank is disabled and the other bank is enabled. To transition to differential mode and improve the quality of the signal, the number of enabled inverters is equalized in both banks.

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Port Moody, Canada

Hormoz Djahanshahi