Patent ID: 8222932

Claim:
A phase-locked loop, comprising: a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) system configured to receive one or more control signals and in response to the one or more control signals to generate a PLL output signal at a PLL output frequency; a plurality of phase detectors each configured to receive at a same time as each other: (1) a same reference signal as each other, and (2) a same PLL feedback signal as each other, the PLL feedback signal having a PLL feedback frequency derived from the PLL output signal, wherein in operation only one of the phase detectors is activated at any time such that when it is activated it compares the reference signal to the PLL feedback signal, and in response thereto outputs a comparison signal; a plurality of signal processing paths each connected to an output of a corresponding one of the phase detectors, the signal processing paths having different frequency responses from each other, each signal processing path being configured such that when the corresponding phase detector is activated, the signal processing path receives the comparison signal and in response thereto outputs a phase detection output signal; and a switching arrangement configured to selectively switch between outputs of the signal processing paths to select the phase detection output signal from the activated phase detector to generate the one or more control signals for the VCO system.