Patent Document

FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The invention relates to a phase-locked loop (PLL), particularly to a PLL having a differential charge pump. 
     BACKGROUND 
     Among the continuing scaling of CMOS technology toward deep submicron range, the supply voltage is scaled to 1.5V to 1.8V range at current 0.18um to 0.15um manufacturing processes. Phase-Locked Loop (PLL) is one of the most important blocks for almost all high-performance digital chips such as CPUs, DSPs, communication transmitter/receivers, etc. However, as an analog circuit, PLL&#39;s control voltage range becomes more limited as the supply voltage becomes lower. Thus, a need exists for a CMOS PLL design for low-supply voltage and high-speed clock generation. 
     SUMMARY 
     The invention provides a CMOS phase-locked loop (PLL) design for low-supply voltage and high-speed clock generation. 
     Preferably, a PLL with a supply voltage Vdd includes a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO. The PLL also includes a loop filter coupled to the VCO. The loop filter has MOSFET gate capacitors with a process dependent threshold voltage of approximately Vth. Additionally, the loop filter has a first filter terminal with a first filter terminal voltage of Vf 1  and a second filter terminal with a second filter terminal voltage of Vf 2 . The PLL further includes a differential charge pump (CP) coupled to the loop filter, wherein the differential CP senses the threshold voltage Vth and maintains at a node a common-mode reference voltage of Vref that is approximately equal to (Vdd-Vth)/2. The differential CP has a common-mode feedback for centering Vf 1  and Vf 2  around Vref. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES 
     FIG. 1 shows a typical application of a PLL used in clock generation for digital chips such as CPU, DSP, etc. PLL helps to generate a higher frequency clock for the chip internal core (frequency multiplication) and align I/O bus clock with the reference clock SysClock input from the board. 
     FIG. 2 shows the block diagram of a typical charge-pump PLL implementation in which CP is PFD is the phase frequency detector, CP the charge-pump, LPF the low-pass filter, VCO the voltage-controlled oscillator, D 2 S the differential to single-ended translator, REF &amp; BIAS the reference and biasing circuit. The top RCV is receiver in I/O pad and the bottom is used for delay match. 
     FIG. 3 shows the differential charge-pump and loop filter. The diode-connected MOSFET m 129  has a large W/L ratio and senses the threshold voltage of the NMOS transistor. LPF consists of poly resistors and NMOS transistors biased in strong inversion. cpena resets the initial differential loop filter voltage and setfo sets the loop filter voltage at zero. 
     FIG. 4 is the frequency divider. All-zero and all-one detection is used to prevent the divider “hard” failures. The divider sets the initial state every state cycle, which can correct or modify) the divide-mode in one system clock cycle. Different feedback taps enable the high-speed operation by reducing the critical path delay. 
     FIG. 5 shows how the control signals are generated to control the VCO start-up, the charge-pump enable and the loop close at pfdena. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Reference is made in detail to the preferred embodiments of the invention. While the invention is described in conjunction with the preferred embodiments, the invention is not intended to be limited by these preferred embodiments. On the contrary, the invention is intended to cover alternatives, modifications and equivalents, which may be included within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. Furthermore, in the following detailed description of the invention, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the invention. However, as is obvious to one ordinarily skilled in the art, the invention may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known methods, procedures, components, and circuits have not been described in detail so that aspects of the invention will not be obscured. 
     General Operation of Phase Locked Loop 
     FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of Phase Locked Loop (PLL)  100  used for clock generation. The major components of a charge-pump PLL are Phase Frequency detector (PFD), Charge Pump (CP)  110 , Low Pass Filter (LPF)  115 , Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO)  120 , and frequency divider  125 . A board clock is input to the chip pad and used as reference clock input (SysClock)  130  to the PFD  105 . SClk  135  is the on-chip clock generated from VCO  120  and divided by the frequency divider  125 . PFD  105  compares SysClock  130  and SClk  135 , and issues control signals UP/DN depending on which signal arrives early. CP  110  converts the voltage control signals UP/DN into current pulse IP which is filtered by the LPF  115 . VC is the control signal generated from LPF  115  and is used to control the VCO oscillation frequency. The high-frequency clock of VCO output is then divided by the divide_by_N frequency divider. PLL  100  serves as a frequency multiplier and timing alignment circuit for the chip interfacing. 
     Functional Operation of the PLL 
     Shown in FIG. 2 is the top-level block diagram of a differential charge pump PLL  110 . In addition to FIG. 1, D2S  210  is the circuit translating the differential signals into the single-ended, REF &amp; BIAS  225  generates the reference and biasing currents, PLL parameter control block generates the control signals to control the PLL start-up and to set the PLL loop parameters for different divide mode. The differential operation is noted on the diagram of complementary signals, such as IP+, IP−, etc. In FIG. 3 (CP block in FIG.  1 ), a novel differential charge pump circuit is developed. Process compensation which is very important to deep submicron CMOS operating under lower supply voltage is realized through a threshold voltage sensing technique for the common-mode reference setting. When the supply voltage is low, the available useful voltage range of analog control is very limited. The invented charge pump circuit maximizes this control voltage range. FIG. 4 is the programmable frequency divider (Programmable divider in FIG. 2) developed for high frequency applications. This frequency divider can also support divide-mode change-on-flight by all-zero/all-one detection and divider self-correction. PLL start-up is totally controlled by the control circuit shown in FIG.  5 . Through such a control scheme, PLL can power up very robustly. 
     Description of the Invented Charge Pump Circuit 
     A differential charge pump circuit  110  and the associated loop filter  115  are shown in FIG.  3 . Four functional subcircuits can be identified. The common-mode feedback circuit consists of transistors m 1 A, m 1 B, m 1 C, m 1 D, m 8 B, m 8 C, m 9 B, m 9 C, m 45 , m 10 A, and m 11 A. Common-mode reference and filter voltage preset are finished by resistors R 1 A, R 2 A, R 1 B, R 2 B, and transistors m 129 , m 101 , m 102  and m 103 . Charge pumping is done by transistors m 2 A, m 2 B, m 2 C, m 2 D, m 8 D, m 8 E, m 9 D, m 9 E, m 10 B, m 10 C, m 11 B, and m 11 C. Loop filter  115  consists of MOSFET capacitors C 1 F 1 , C 1 F 2 , C 3 F 1 , C 3 F 2 , and resistors RFILTER 1  and RFILTER 2 . Cross-coupled differential pairs m 1 A, m 1 B and m 1 C and m 1 D measure the common-mode voltage at filter terminals F 1  and F 2 , compares it to the voltage at node X 0 , adjust the circuit biasing through m 10 A and m 11 A such that the average voltage at terminal F 1  and F 2  equals to the reference voltage at node X 0 . MOSFET gate capacitors C 1 F 1 , C 1 F 2 , C 3 F 1 , and C 3 F 2  are voltage-dependent nonlinear capacitors, but, in CMOS, they are cheaper than any other capacitors if available at all. Using MOSFET capacitors to implement PLL loop filter  115  requires good control of the MOSFET capacitor gate voltage such that the capacitors operate in the linear range. As shown in FIG. 3, NMOS transistors are used as loop filter capacitors C 1 F 1 , C 1 F 2 , C 3 F 1 , and C 3 F 2 . The requirement of these capacitors linear operation is that the terminal voltages at F 1  and F 2  are always greater than the NMOS transistor threshold voltage VTH, i.e., the voltages at F 1  and F 2  can only vary within VDD−VTH, where VDD is the chip supply voltage. 
     The common-mode reference voltage at X 0  are determined by R 1 A, R 1 B, R 2 A and R 2 B. Transistor m 129  is designed with very large channel width and resistors are selected such that the current through the resistor branch is relatively small. Since the channel width of m 129  is large and the current flowing through the diode-connected m 129  is small, the drain voltage of m 129  at node XD approximately represents the NMOS transistor threshold voltage VTH. In other words, m 129  is designed to sense the NMOS threshold voltage of a particular semiconductor manufacturing process. The resistors are designed such that R 1 A=R 1 B and R 2 A=R 2 B. By this arrangement, the node voltage at X 0  is equal to (VDD−VTH)/2 which is the middle point of the linear range of NMOS capacitors. Transistors m 102  and m 103  enable the charge pump. When m 102  and m 103  are ON and m 101  is OFF, filter terminal voltage at Fl is equal to the voltage at node XA, and the voltage at F 2  is equal to the voltage at node XB. The equivalent VCO control voltage is equal to the difference of voltages of F 2  and F 1 . Since the XB voltage is always lower than XA voltage, the VCO control voltage is preset at a negative value. The differential voltage of VCO control is zero when the VCO is free running which can be set by turning m 101 , m 102  and m 103 . Before the charge pump  110  is enabled, the VCO control voltage is initialized at a differential negative value to help the VCO oscillation start-up. More explanation is given in the description of PLL start-up about this feature. 
     Referring still to FIG. 3, the differential charge pumping is realized by the cross-coupled differential pairs m 2 A, m 2 B, m 2 C and m 2 D. m 10 B, m 11 B and m 10 C, m 11 C together with m 10 A, m 11 A form low-voltage cascade current mirrors. To make the maximum use of loop filter capacitor linear range, the gate-to-source voltage of m 11 B, m 11 C through vp are biased to a relatively small value but in saturation range. Since one VTH is subtracted from the node voltages at F 1  and F 2 , biasing of m 8 B, m 8 C, m 8 D, m 8 E, and m 9 B, m 9 C, m 9 D, m 9 E through vn 1 , vn 2  can be easily determined. Pin cpena controls the charge pump enable. Pin setfo is used to preset the loop filter control voltage at differential zero, so that VCO  120  will run at free running frequency. 
     Description of Frequency Divider: 
     FIG. 4 shows the detailed schematic of the developed frequency divider  125 . In this implementation, the divide mode can be set to 2N, where N is one of 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5, 6, 6.5. In other words, the divider  125  can be programmed to one of eight divide modes—4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13. As explained in the general description, high speed is the basic requirement for the frequency divider  125 . The frequency divider  125  shown in FIG. 4 is a shift register type divider. The novel feature of this divider  125  is the nested feedbacks to the distributed multiplexes, which reduce the time delay of the critical path in conventional approach (an 8-to-1 mux at the entry for programmability). Following table shows the nested feedback configuration. 
     
       
         
               
             
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
             
           
               
                 TABLE 1 
               
             
             
               
                   
               
               
                 Frequency Divider Configuration 
               
             
          
           
               
                 div. mode 
                 DFF1 
                 DFF2 
                 DFF3 
                 DFF4 
                 DFF5 
                 DFF6 
                 DFF7 
                 DFF8 
                 DFF9 
                 DFF10 
                 DFF11 
                 DFF12 
                 DFF13 
               
               
                   
               
               
                 /13  
                 1 
                 1 
                 1 
                 1 
                 0 
                 0 
                 0 
                 0 
                 0 
                 0 
                 0 
                 1 
                 1 
               
               
                 /12  
                 1 
                 1 
                 1 
                 1 
                 0 
                 0 
                 0 
                 0 
                 0 
                 0 
                 1 
                 1 
                 x 
               
               
                 /9 
                 x 
                 x 
                 1 
                 1 
                 0 
                 0 
                 0 
                 0 
                 0 
                 1 
                 1 
                 x 
                 x 
               
               
                 /8 
                 x 
                 x 
                 1 
                 1 
                 0 
                 0 
                 0 
                 0 
                 1 
                 1 
                 x 
                 x 
                 x 
               
               
                 /7 
                 0 
                 1 
                 1 
                 1 
                 0 
                 0 
                 0 
                 x 
                 x 
                 x 
                 x 
                 x 
                 x 
               
               
                 /6 
                 x 
                 x 
                 x 
                 1 
                 0 
                 0 
                 0 
                 1 
                 1 
                 x 
                 x 
                 x 
                 x 
               
               
                 /5 
                 x 
                 0 
                 1 
                 1 
                 0 
                 0 
                 x 
                 x 
                 x 
                 x 
                 x 
                 x 
                 x 
               
               
                 /4 
                 x 
                 0 
                 1 
                 1 
                 0 
                 x 
                 x 
                 x 
                 x 
                 x 
                 x 
                 x 
                 x 
               
               
                   
               
             
          
         
       
     
     In Table 1, the first column is divide mode selection, “0” means the initial state of the D flip-flop (DFF) is at low voltage, “1” means the initial state is at high voltage, and “x” means the corresponding DFF is not included in the divider for a specific divide mode, that is, only the DFFs with either “0” or “1” initial state form the divider. The initial states of all DFFs are set through the MUXes sitting in front of the DFFs, i.e., synchronous set. As seen from Table 1, DFFs can be assigned to different initial states, some of the DFFs&#39; initial state are selected through the decoding of the divide mode, e.g., DFF 2  is initialized to “0” for divide ratio 4 or 5, and to “1” for divide ratio 7, 12 or 13. 
     The frequency divider self-correction is done through the initial state set for every divider cycle. For example, for divide-by-4 mode, the initial state is 0110 of DFF2, DFF3, DFF4 and DFF5, and this state will be repeated for every four clock cycles. Once the initial state is back, the divider resets the divider to the initial state. If the divide mode is the same as before, the divider output is smooth and circuit operates as a usual counter. If the divide mode has been changed, the divider operates to the new divider mode through this reset and so self-correction. For example, if divide mode has been changed from 4 to 6, the divider output looks like as following if we use the divider clock as timing reference 
     . . . 11001100111000111000 . . . 
     This self-correction technique make it possible of divide-mode change-on-flight. 
     For divide-by-k mode, k DFFs are used in the shift register loop. As we know, there arc 2{circumflex over ( )}k possible states and only k states are legal for a divide-by-k, e.g., for divide-by-6, 6 slates are used, and 2{circumflex over ( )}6−6=58 states are illegal. Self-correction described above and the all-zero/all-one detection help to prevent the divider staying in these illegal states. As an example, if we want a divide-by-6 and the initial state of the divider is set at 111101, what we see at the output looks like 
     1111011100011000 . . . 
     The divider corrects itself after 6 clock cycles. During power-up, the divider can also be in the state of all zeros or all ones of the DFFs. To prevent the divider staying in the all-zero/all-one state forever, all-zero/all-one detection circuits set the initial state once such situation is detected. The decoding is related to the divide definition given in the figure. 
     Description of the Power-up Control: 
     Process variations make a deep-submicron PLL design challenging. To have the PLL work robustly, the controlled start-up of PLL is devised so that PLL can starts operation under all operation conditions. As shown in FIG. 5, RCLK is the output of ring counter and its frequency is 256 times less than that of the reference clock clkref input to the PFD. The clock period TRCLK=256*Tclkref. 
     The power-up detection portion consists of mC 1 , m 2 , m 3  and m 4 . Transistor mC 1  is used as a capacitor, and transistor m 2  is designed with long channel and used as a resistor. m 2  and m 1 C form an RC low pass filter. Transistors m 3  and m 4  form an inverter with weak pull-down m 4 . When the power is up, VDD through m 2  charges the m 1 C and voltage at node X goes up. Once the voltage at node X reaches the threshold of m 3 , m 4  inverter, m 4  pulls down the voltage at node Y. Since m 4  is weak, the inverter threshold is closer to VDD and node Y can only be pulled down when the voltage at node X is high enough. When the power is detected as up, pllena is asserted, and the reference clock is input to the chip and runs 256 cycles (rising edge of RCLK appears), the control signal vcoena is sent out to start the VCO oscillation at a lower frequency controlled by the preset filter voltage. At this time, PLL is still in open loop condition, and VCO is free running. The loop waits another 256 reference clock cycles to enable the charge pump (cpena goes high) and shortly closes the PLL loop by issuing the control signal pfdena. In summary, PLL components are enabled sequentially and loop is only closed when all components are set to the predefined condition. This way, PLL always starts the operation under the strict controlled condition, which avoids the random start-up and possible positive feedback of making the PLL dead. 
     The foregoing descriptions of specific embodiments of the invention have been presented for purposes of illustration and description. They are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed. Obviously, many modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teaching. The embodiments were chosen and described in order to explain the principles and the application of the invention, thereby enabling others skilled in the art to utilize the invention in its various embodiments and modifications according to the particular purpose contemplated. The scope of the invention is intended to be defined by the claims appended hereto and their equivalents.

Technology Category: 5