Patent ID: 8432198

Claim:
An injection-locked phase-locked loop with a self-aligned injection window, comprising: a loop filter, providing a control voltage; an injection pulse generator, generating an injection pulse based on a reference oscillation signal; an injection-locked voltage-controlled oscillator, controlled by the control voltage and the injection pulse, and having a pair of differential terminals for generation of an oscillation output, wherein the control voltage is operative to adjust a frequency and/or a phase of the oscillation output, and the oscillation output is aligned with the injection pulse to limit a phase difference between the oscillation output and the injection pulse; and a phase detector, coupled to the pair of differential terminals of the injection-locked voltage-controlled oscillator to detect, according to the injection pulse, a phase difference between signals on the pair of differential terminals and thereby generate a control signal, wherein the control signal is operative to further adjust the phase difference between the oscillation output and the injection pulse.