Phase/frequency detector and charge pump architecture for referenceless clock and data recovery (cdr) applications

Abstract

A stream of data may flow over a fiber or other medium without any accompanying clock signal. The receiving device may then be required to process this data synchronously. Embodiments describe clock and data recovery (CDR) circuits which may sample a data signal at a plurality of sampling points to partition a clock cycle into four phase regions P, P, P, and Pwhich may be represented on a phase plane being divided into four quadrants. A relative phase between a data signal transition edge and a clock phase may be represented by a phasor on the phase plane. The clock phase and frequency may be adjusted by determining the instantaneous location of the phasor and the direction of phasor rotation in the phase plane.