Systems and methods are provided for a cascade phase locked loop. A first phase locked loop receives a reference clock signal having a first frequency and generates a high frequency clock signal that is phase aligned with the reference clock signal. A first divider divides the high frequency clock signal to generate a middle frequency clock signal, and a second divider divides the middle frequency clock signal to generate a low frequency reference clock signal. A second phase locked loop receives the low frequency reference clock signal and generates an output signal, compares the output signal to the low frequency reference clock signal to generate a frequency increasing (UP) signal that indicates a phase difference between the output signal and the low frequency reference clock signal. A delay locked loop receives the middle frequency clock signal and the frequency increasing (UP) signal and delays the middle frequency clock signal based on the frequency increasing (UP) signal to generate the realignment clock signal. The second phase lock loop receives the realignment clock signal and adjusts the phase difference between the output signal and the low frequency reference clock signal based on the realignment clock signal.

A clock product includes a time-to-digital converter responsive to an input clock signal, a reference clock signal, and a time-to-digital converter calibration signal. The time-to-digital converter includes a coarse time-to-digital converter and a fine time-to digital converter. The clock product includes a calibration circuit including a phase-locked loop. The calibration circuit is configured to generate the time-to-digital converter calibration signal. The clock product includes a controller configured to execute instructions that cause the phase-locked loop to generate an error signal for each possible value of a fine time code of a digital time code generated by the time-to-digital converter and to average the error signal over multiple clock cycles to generate an average error signal.

A plurality of Phase Locked Loops, PLL (12, 14), are distributed across an Integrated Circuit, each receiving a common reference signal (A). A local phase error (B) of each PLL (12, 14) is connected to a phase error averaging circuit (16), which calculates an average phase error (C), and distributes it back to each PLL (12, 14). In each PLL (12, 14), two loop filters (20, 22) with different bandwidths are deployed. A lower bandwidth, high DC gain, common mode loop operates on the average phase error, and forces the PLL outputs (H) to track the phase of the common reference signal. A high bandwidth, difference mode loop operates on the difference between the local phase error (B) and the average phase error (C) to suppress phase differences between PLL outputs, minimizing interaction between them. The reference noise contribution at the output is controlled by the common mode loop, which can have a low bandwidth. The reference noise contribution and oscillator interaction suppression are thus independently controlled.

Systems and methods are provided for a cascade phase locked loop. A first phase locked loop receives a reference clock signal having a first frequency and generates a high frequency clock signal that is phase aligned with the reference clock signal. A first divider divides the high frequency clock signal to generate a middle frequency clock signal, and a second divider divides the middle frequency clock signal to generate a low frequency reference clock signal. A second phase locked loop receives the low frequency reference clock signal and generates an output signal, compares the output signal to the low frequency reference clock signal to generate a frequency increasing (UP) signal that indicates a phase difference between the output signal and the low frequency reference clock signal. A delay locked loop receives the middle frequency clock signal and the frequency increasing (UP) signal and delays the middle frequency clock signal based on the frequency increasing (UP) signal to generate the realignment clock signal. The second phase lock loop receives the realignment clock signal and adjusts the phase difference between the output signal and the low frequency reference clock signal based on the realignment clock signal.

Nested phase-locked loops (PLLs) utilize resonators of different quality factors, oscillation frequencies, and tunability. A reference clock signal for a first PLL is based on a free running bulk acoustic wave (BAW) resonator. The first PLL utilizes an LC oscillator as a voltage controlled oscillator. A crystal oscillator supplies a reference clock signal to a second PLL. Feedback dividers of the first and second PLLs are coupled to the LC oscillator. A delta sigma modulator coupled to the loop filter of the second PLL controls the feedback divider of the first PLL. The first PLL utilizes a high update rate to ensure that the jitter power spectral density is spread over a wide frequency range. The nested PLL architecture allows the overall phase noise plot to follow that of the crystal resonator at low frequencies, the BAW resonator at mid-frequencies, and the LC resonator at high frequencies.

The present invention discloses a transceiver apparatus having phase-tracking mechanism. A phase detection circuit of a receiver circuit performs sampling and phase detection on an input data signal according to a sampling clock signal to generate a phase detection result. A proportional gain circuit of the receiver circuit applies a proportional gain operation on the phase detection result to generate a phase adjusting signal. A CDR circuit of the receiver circuit receives a source clock signal to generate the sampling clock signal and performs phase-adjusting according to the phase adjusting signal. The integral gain circuit apples an integral gain operation on the phase detection result to generate a frequency adjusting signal. The source clock generating circuit receives a reference clock signal to generate the source clock signal and perform frequency-adjusting according to the frequency adjusting signal. The transmitter circuit performs signal transmission according to the source clock signal.

An apparatus and a method for synchronizing output clock signals across a plurality of phase-locked loops (PLLs). The apparatus coupled within each PLL comprises: a local counter configured to provide a count when receiving a reference clock signal; a comparator configured to compare the count from the local counter with a predetermined or preconfigured value; wherein a multiplexor connected to the local counter and counters of adjacent PLLs, configured to select the count from the local counter or a count from the counters of the adjacent PLLs; wherein the selected count from the multiplexor is incremented and directed to the local counter; wherein an output clock divider enable is asserted to the PLL to start an output clock divider to generate the output clock signal when the count from the local counter reaches the predetermined or preconfigured value.

A clock generating circuit includes a first frequency multiplier configured to generate a second clock signal having a second frequency based on a first clock signal having a first frequency, and a second frequency multiplier configured to generate a third clock signal having a third frequency based on the second clock signal. The first frequency multiplier includes a circuit configured to control a duty cycle of the first clock signal, a delay circuit configured to receive the duty controlled clock signal, and delay the received signal based on a duty cycle of the second clock signal to output a first delay clock signal, and an XOR gate configured to perform an XOR computation using the duty controlled clock signal and the first delay clock signal to output the second clock signal. The second frequency is greater than the first frequency, and the third frequency is greater than the second frequency.

A dual-loop phase-locking circuit combines a conventional phase-frequency-detector (PFD) and frequency-divider based first loop to lock an output signal frequency to a multiple of a reference signal frequency within a first loop bandwidth BW1 with a second loop to simultaneously lock the output signal phase to a second signal independently locked to the same multiple of the reference signal. The second loop integrates the phase error between the output signal and the second signal, and applies an offset at the PFD output in the first loop to reduce the first loop phase errors within a second loop bandwidth BW2 (<BW1). The first loop bandwidth BW1 can be optimized for overall phase-noise performance of the output signal while retaining the excellent capture and hold characteristics of that loop's topology. The second loop provides superior carrier-frequency phase alignment between the output signal and second signal. The output and second signal may therefore be configured as inputs to systems that require highly coherent carrier signals with de-correlated phase-noise such as phase-noise measurement systems or phase-noise cancellation systems.

A dual-loop phase-locking circuit combines a conventional phase-frequency-detector (PFD) and frequency-divider based first loop to lock an output signal frequency to a multiple of a reference signal frequency within a first loop bandwidth BW1 with a second loop to simultaneously lock the output signal phase to a second signal independently locked to the same multiple of the reference signal. The second loop integrates the phase error between the output signal and the second signal, and applies an offset at the PFD output in the first loop to reduce the first loop phase errors within a second loop bandwidth BW2 (<BW1). The first loop bandwidth BW1 can be optimized for overall phase-noise performance of the output signal while retaining the excellent capture and hold characteristics of that loop's topology. The second loop provides superior carrier-frequency phase alignment between the output signal and second signal. The output and second signal may therefore be configured as inputs to systems that require highly coherent carrier signals with de-correlated phase-noise such as phase-noise measurement systems or phase-noise cancellation systems.