Qualcomm Incorporated

Julian Puscar

Zhiqin Chen

Burcin Serter Ergun

Brett Patrick Delaney

Eskinder Hailu

Jon Boyette

Hadi Goudarzi

Dewanshu Chhagan Sewake

A clock generation circuit has a voltage-controlled oscillator that includes a first transistor pair coupled in series between a power rail and ground, a replica transistor pair coupled in series between a reference node and ground, a current source having an output coupled to the reference node. The current source is coupled to a control signal that determines amplitude of current flowing through the replica transistor pair. A voltage regulator has an input coupled to the reference node and an output coupled to the power rail. The voltage regulator is configured to maintain the power rail at a voltage level defined by the voltage level of the reference node. Each transistor in the replica transistor pair is collocated on an integrated circuit with and has a same type as a corresponding transistor in the first transistor pair.

Power supply calibration for voltage controlled oscillators

A method for calibrating a phase locked loop (PLL) includes counting cycles of an output clock signal generated by the PLL until early phase lock signal is asserted when the cycles of the output clock signal counted within a first duration of time differ from a first target value by no more than a first maximum difference, counting cycles of the output clock signal until final phase lock signal is asserted when the cycles of the output clock signal counted within a second duration of time differ from a second target value by no more than a second maximum difference, the second duration of time being greater than the first duration of time, and using the output clock signal to control an operation in a physical layer circuit of a communication interface after the early phase lock signal is asserted and before the final phase lock signal is asserted.

Early lock detection for phase locked loops

A phase locked loop (PLL) method includes generating a first signal based on a comparison of a phase of a reference clock or signal to a phase of a feedback clock; generating an output clock based on the first signal; generating an intermediate feedback clock including frequency dividing the output clock; fractionally frequency dividing the intermediate feedback clock based on a digital control signal to generate the feedback clock; and generating the digital control signal based on a sampling clock having a frequency greater than a frequency of the feedback clock. In one implementation, a PLL includes a frequency multiplier to generate the sampling clock based on the feedback clock. In another implementation, a PLL uses the intermediate feedback clock as the sampling clock.

Fractional phase locked loop (PLL) with digital control driven by clock with higher frequency than PLL feedback signal

A method for fixing a dead-zone in a clock and data recovery (CDR) circuit is disclosed herein. The CDR circuit includes a CDR block and a phase interpolator, the CDR block is configured to generate phase codes based on signals from a phase detector, and the phase interpolator is configured to adjust a phase of a clock signal based on the phase codes. The method includes waiting for the CDR circuit to lock, reading a first phase code from the CDR block, changing the first phase code by a first amount to obtain a second phase code, and inputting the second phase code to the phase interpolator.

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San Diego, CA, United States of America

Julian Puscar