Patent ID: 8773208

Claim:
An oscillator system, comprising: a variable frequency digital ring oscillator having (i) a first oscillator portion including a first plurality of electronic cells that are selectably enabled and (ii) a second oscillator portion including a second plurality of electronic cells, the second oscillator portion being coupled to the first oscillator portion, individual electronic cells of the first plurality of electronic cells and individual electronic cells of the second plurality of electronic cells being substantially identical electronic cells, wherein for an electronic cell of the first plurality of electronic cells that is enabled, an output signal received from a preceding electronic cell is transferred to a succeeding electronic cell, wherein for an electronic cell of the first plurality of electronic cells that is not enabled, an output signal received from the preceding electronic cell is inverted and transferred to the preceding electronic cell, wherein a first frequency of a first toggled signal output by the first oscillator portion is based at least in part on a number of the first plurality of electronic cells that are enabled, wherein the second oscillator portion is configured to receive the first toggled signal and to output a second toggled signal, wherein the first oscillator portion is configured to receive the second toggled signal; a frequency comparator configured to (i) receive the first toggled signal output by the first oscillator portion and (ii) compare the first frequency of the received first toggled signal with a desired frequency; and a controller configured to selectively enable or disable one or more of the first plurality of electronic cells to cause the digital ring oscillator to output the first toggled signal at substantially the desired frequency, wherein ones of the first plurality of electronic cells is configured to receive a corresponding control signal from the controller that determines whether the corresponding electronic cell is to be enabled or disabled.