Patent ID: 8258885

Claim:
A method comprising: generating, by a first inductor-capacitor based voltage-controlled oscillator (LCVCO) that includes a first LC tank, a first periodic signal having a frequency and a first phase based on a resonant frequency of the first LC tank; generating, by a second LCVCO that includes a second LC tank, a second periodic signal having the frequency and a second phase based on a resonant frequency of the second LC tank; determining, by a phase detector, a phase offset between the first LC tank and the second LC tank based on the first and second periodic signals; generating, by the phase detector, a first output signal and a second output signal based on the determined phase offset; adjusting the phase offset such that the phase offset is substantially equal to a predetermined phase offset, the adjusting comprising: modulating, by the first LCVCO, a first impedance of the first LC tank based on the first output signal to adjust the resonant frequency of the first LC tank; and/or modulating, by the second LCVCO, a second impedance of the second LC tank based on the second output signal to adjust the resonant frequency of the second LC tank; and summing the first output signal with a first adjustment signal to generate a first adjusted signal and summing the second output signal with a second adjustment signal to generate a second adjusted signal; wherein: modulating, by the first LCVCO, the first impedance of the first LC tank based on the first output signal comprises modulating, by the first LCVCO, the first impedance of the first LC tank based on the first adjusted signal; and modulating, by the second LCVCO, the second impedance of the second LC tank based on the second output signal comprises modulating, by second LCVCO, the second impedance of the second LC tank based on the second adjusted signal.