A time-domain digitally controlled oscillator composed of a free running ring oscillator and flying-adder

A time-domain digitally controlled oscillator （DCO） is proposed. The DCO is composed of a free-running ring oscillator （FRO） and a two lap-selectors integrated flying-adder （FA）. With a coiled cell array which allows uniform loading capacitances of the delay cells, the FRO produces 32 outputs with consistent tap spacing for the FA as reference clocks. The FA uses the outputs from the FRO to generate the output of the DCO according to the control number, resulting in a linear dependence of the output period, instead of the frequency on the digital controlling word input. Thus the proposed DCO ensures a good conversion linearity in a time-domain, and is suitable for time-domain all-digital phase locked loop applications. The DCO was implemented in a standard 0.13μm digital logic CMOS process. The measurement results show that the DCO has a linear and monotonic tuning curve with gain variation of less than 10%, and a very low root mean square period jitter of 9.3 ps in the output clocks. The DCO works well at supply voltages ranging from 0.6 to 1.2 V, and consumes 4 mW of power with 500 MHz frequency output at 1.2 V supply voltage.

A low-power and low-phase-noise LC digitally controlled oscillator featuring a novel capacitor bank

A monolithic low-power and low-phase-noise digitally controlled oscillator （DCO） based on a symmetric spiral inductor with center-tap and novel capacitor bank was implemented in a 0.18 μm CMOS process with six metal layers. A third new way to change capacitance is proposed and implemented in this work. Results show that the phase noise at I MHz offset frequency is below -122.5 dBc/Hz while drawing a current of only 4.8 mA from a 1.8 V supply. Also, the DCO can work at low supply voltage conditions with a 1.6 V power supply and 4.1 mA supply current for the DCO＇s core circuit, achieving a phase-noise of-121.5 dBc/Hz at offset of 1 MHz. It demonstrates that the supply pushing of DCO is less than 10 MHz/V.

Digitally controlled oscillator design with a variable capacitance XOR gate

A digitally controlled oscillator（DCO） using a three-transistor XOR gate as the variable load has been presented.A delay cell using an inverter and a three-transistor XOR gate as the variable capacitance is also proposed. Three-,five- and seven-stage DCO circuits have been designed using the proposed delay cell.The output frequency is controlled digitally with bits applied to the delay cells.The three-bit DCO shows output frequency and power consumption variation in the range of 3.2486-4.0267 GHz and 0.6121-0.3901 mW,respectively,with a change in the control word 111-000.The five-bit DCO achieves frequency and power of 1.8553-2.3506 GHz and 1.0202-0.6501 mW,respectively,with a change in the control word 11111-00000.Moreover,the seven-bit DCO shows a frequency and power consumption variation of 1.3239-1.6817 GHz and 1.4282-0.9102 mW,respectively, with a varying control word 1111111-0000000.The power consumption and output frequency of the proposed circuits have been compared with earlier reported circuits and the present approaches show significant improvements.

Low power digitally controlled oscillator designs with a novel 3-transistor XNOR gate

Digital controlled oscillators（DCOs） are the core of all digital phase locked loop（ADPLL） circuits. Here,DCO structures with reduced hardware and power consumption having full digital control have been proposed. Three different DCO architectures have been proposed based on ring based topology.Three,four and five bit controlled DCO with NMOS,PMOS and NMOS PMOS transistor switching networks are presented.A three-transistor XNOR gate has been used as the inverter which is used as the delay cell.Delay has been controlled digitally with a switch network of NMOS and PMOS transistors.The three bit DCO with one NMOS network shows frequency variations of 1.6141-1.8790 GHz with power consumption variations 251.9224-276.8591μW. The four bit DCO with one NMOS network shows frequency variation of 1.6229-1.8868 GHz with varying power consumption of 251.9225-278.0740μW.A six bit DCO with one NMOS switching network gave an output frequency of 1.7237-1.8962 GHz with power consumption of 251.928-278.998μW.Output frequency and power consumption results for 4 6 bit DCO circuits with one PMOS and NMOS PMOS switching network have also been presented.The phase noise parameter with an offset frequency of 1 MHz has also been reported for the proposed circuits.Comparisons with earlier reported circuits have been made and the present approach shows advantages over previous circuits.