Patent ID: 8121242

Claim:
In a receiver device, a method for frequency lock stability using overlapping voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) bands, the method comprising: in a receiving device including a plurality of VCOs with overlapping frequency bands, accepting an input communication signal; selecting an initial VCO; using a phase-locked loop (PLL) and the initial VCO, acquiring the frequency of the input communication signal; measuring the acquired signal tuning voltage of the initial VCO; disengaging the initial VCO and sequentially engaging a plurality of adjacent band VCOs; measuring the acquired signal tuning voltage of each VCO; selecting a final VCO able to generate the input communication signal frequency using an acquired signal tuning voltage closest to a midpoint of a predetermined tuning voltage range, as follows: dividing the tuning voltage range into a plurality of data points; comparing the acquired signal tuning voltage of each VCO to the data points; selecting the VCO with the fewest number of data points between the acquired signal tuning voltage and the midpoint of the tuning voltage range as follows: for each VCO the number of data points between the voltage range midpoint and the acquired signal tuning voltage; comparing the count for each VCO; and, selecting the VCO with the lowest count.