Patent Abstract:
A digital clock generator uses an on-chip digital delay chain to generate clock signal with variable frequency. An external charging circuit with variable charge rate may be used to select target frequency by generating digital pulse with variable width. An external reference clock may be used to calibrate the digital clock frequency. The external reference clock may be enabled only for calibration.

Full Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS  
       [0001]     This application claims the benefit of provisional patent Appl No. 60/798,505 filed 2006 May 08 by the present inventor. 
     
    
     FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
       [0002]     This invention relates generally to clock generation circuits, and more specifically to a digital clock generation circuit without reference clock, and more specifically to a clock generation circuit adjusted by external resistor and capacitor.  
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0003]     Clock generation circuits are commonly used in digital data processing devices. In general, a phase-locked loop is used to generate this clock signal. Phase-locked loop designs typically rely on external reference clock signals, and internally use voltage controlled oscillators (VCO). In U.S. Pat. No. 5,173,617, the PLL-based clock generator does not rely on VCO, but still depends on external reference clock. External reference clocks driven by digital I/O pad oscillating at high frequencies wastes power, and are fragile and vulnerable to vibration or other environmental hazards. In Linear Technology&#39;s LTC6905 resistor set oscillator, the external clock is replaced with a resistor. The analog voltage differential across the resistor is used to control internal oscillation frequency. However, the LTC6905 uses analog circuit elements. It would be of significant benefit and convenience if a clock generator could be designed without requiring use of external reference clock, and without any analog design involved.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0004]     One object of the present invention is to provide an entirely digital clock generation method that does not use external reference clock. This object is achieved by using external charging circuit, typically resistor with capacitor (RC circuit) connected to normal digital I/O pad, to change width of an internally generated pulse. The external charging circuit can be enabled only when the frequency settings changes, otherwise conserving power while disabled. This pulse width is measured, with the result subsequently used to select desired output clock signal from a recirculation chain of delay elements. The resulting output clock signal is proportional to pulse width.  
         [0005]     Another object of the present invention is to provide an entirely digital clock generation method, with an external reference clock only selectively enabled for calibration of the internal reference clock when needed.  
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0006]      FIG. 1  is the digital clock signal generator architecture.  
         [0007]      FIG. 2  is a waveform showing pulse construction using RC circuit.  
         [0008]      FIG. 3  is a pulse width measurement circuit.  
         [0009]      FIG. 4  is a RC circuit charging curve.  
         [0010]      FIG. 5  is a clock waveform.  
         [0011]      FIG. 6  is an example of a selectable delay circuit.  
         [0012]      FIG. 7A  is an example of digital clock signal generator.  
         [0013]      FIG. 7B  is the waveform for design in  FIG. 7A .  
         [0014]      FIG. 8A  is another example of digital clock generator.  
         [0015]      FIG. 8B  is waveform for circuit in  FIG. 8A  with 6 delay stages.  
         [0016]      FIG. 9  is a clock signal generator, with external crystal enabled for frequency calibration only. 
     
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT  
       [0017]      FIG. 1  is an illustration of digital clock signal generator with variable resistor for adjusting output clock frequency. PAD  105  is a standard digital  10  pad. Enable  150  is use to turn on Output Buffer  100  of PAD  105 . Setting Enable  150  to 1 turns on Output Buffer  100 , and changing Enable to 0 turns off Output Buffer  100 . The External Contact  112  of PAD  105  connects to an external variable Resistor R  130 . Capacitor CAP  120  can be external or pin capacitor from PAD  105 .  
         [0018]     When initialized, A  110  is 0 with Enable  150  set to 1. When Enable  150  changes to 0, Output Buffer  100  is disabled, and A  110  starts to increase due to positive voltage charge VCC  106  through Resistor R  130 . The rate at which A  110  rises depends on value of Resistor R  130 . When A  110  reaches threshold voltage of Input Buffer  104 , then output B  140  changes from 0 to 1. The timing of the rising edge of output B  140  is therefore also dependent on value of Resistor  130 .  
         [0019]     C  160  is a pulse, with the width D  175  determined by lag between falling edge of Enable  150  to rising edge of B  140 . Therefore, the pulse width of C  160  can be adjusted by change variable Resistor  130 . Pulse width D  175  can be measured using Pulse Width Measurement Circuit  170 . Delay selection E  182  is a function of D  175 . Changing pulse width D  175  by adjusting variable Resistor R 130 , allows the frequency of the output Clock  190  to be changed.  
         [0020]     Voltage at A  110 , when Enable  150  is disabled, is dependent on charging of capacitor CAP  120 . The equation for this voltage when charging is as follows: 
 
 V ( t )= Vcc *(1 −e   t/rc ) 
        rc is time constant:     r: resistor in units of ohm.     c: capacitor value in units of Faraday.     t: in units of second.        
 
         [0025]     Assume threshold voltage of buffer  104  is 1.5 v, and Vcc  106  is 3 v, than we have 
 
0.5=1 −e   t/rc  than 
 
 e   −t/rc =0.5 than 
 
− t/rc =ln □0.5□=−0.69 
 
 t =0.69 *RC  
 
         [0026]     For fixed c=CAP  120 , the time required to reach threshold voltage of input Buffer  104  is linear to value of R  130 . This also means the pulse width D  175  is linear to value of R  130 .  
         [0027]      FIG. 2  is a waveform for signals in  FIG. 1 . The pulse C  160  is generated from Enable  150  and input B  140 . The width W  250  of pulse C  160  is a linear function of resistance R  130  in the charging circuit.  
         [0028]      FIG. 3  is a pulse width measurement circuit, such as that used in  FIG. 1 . The signal INP  300  is delayed by a chain of delay buffers. INPB  310  is the inverted version of INP  300 . The rising edge of INPB  310  latches each of the delay buffers in the chain at Latch  320 . Counting the number of Is in the latched values L[ 1 ]  330  to L[n]  360  gives us the width information.  
       W   =       ∑     x   =   1     n     ⁢     L   ⁡     [   x   ]               
         [0029]      FIG. 4  is the RC circuit charging curve, showing change in voltage versus time when a new external voltage is applied.  
         [0030]      FIG. 5  is clock waveform for key signals from  FIG. 1 . When Start  165  is low, F  510  is high. When start  165  change to high, the delay with feedback circuit begins to generate Clock  190 . The timing of Td  520  (half cycle width) is selected by E  182 .  
         [0031]      FIG. 6  is the architecture of a delay block DELAY  185  in  FIG. 1 . Input signal F  510  is delayed by a chain of identical delay buffers. The Clock  190  is selected from one of the delayed output signals by E  182 .  
         [0032]      FIG. 7A  is an example of another clock generator. The duty cycle can be different, and selected by SO  740  and S 1   750 .  
         [0033]      FIG. 7B  shows the waveform for  FIG. 7A . po  FIG. 8A  is a general form of FIG 7 A, allowing for any number n of delay blocks.  FIG. 8B  is a waveform for a  6  delay block.  
         [0034]      FIG. 9  is another digital clock circuit allowing use of external crystal for frequency calibration. The XTAL  900  pad can be enabled for measurement by setting Enable  920  to 1, in which case XTAL  900  receives power voltage, and outputs signal into Ref Clock  930 . Otherwise, XTAL  900  can be disabled by setting Enable  920  to low to reduce power consumption. Compared to traditional phase-locked loop timing circuits, a slower frequency XTAL  900  crystal can be used in this circuit; this also reduces the power consumption.

Technology Classification (CPC): 7