Optimized reduction of spur tones in fractional frequency synthesizers

In this article the contribution of the digital ΣΔ modulator in fractional frequency synthesizers is explored. Due to the circuit’s non linear behavior, the spur tones generated by the digital ΣΔ modulation degrade the synthesizer’s phase noise even in regions where the charge pump noise is dominant...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: VICTOR RODOLFO GONZALEZ DIAZ, MIGUEL ANGEL GARCIA ANDRADE, GUILLERMO ESPINOSA FLORES VERDAD
Format: article
Status:Versión aceptada para publicación
Publication Date:2010
Country:México
Institution:Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica, Óptica y Electrónica
Repository:Repositorio Institucional del INAOE
Language:English
OAI Identifier:oai:inaoe.repositorioinstitucional.mx:1009/1472
Online Access:http://inaoe.repositorioinstitucional.mx/jspui/handle/1009/1472
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:info:eu-repo/classification/Fractional/Fractional
info:eu-repo/classification/Frequency synthesizers/Frequency synthesizers
info:eu-repo/classification/Digital-sigma-delta/Digital-sigma-delta
info:eu-repo/classification/Phase noise/Phase noise
info:eu-repo/classification/Spur tones/Spur tones
info:eu-repo/classification/cti/1
info:eu-repo/classification/cti/22
info:eu-repo/classification/cti/2203
Description
Summary:In this article the contribution of the digital ΣΔ modulator in fractional frequency synthesizers is explored. Due to the circuit’s non linear behavior, the spur tones generated by the digital ΣΔ modulation degrade the synthesizer’s phase noise even in regions where the charge pump noise is dominant. A new method to dither digital MASH ΣΔ modulators for fractional frequency synthesizers is proposed. The method barely increases the circuit complexity and has the same performance as more cumbersome architectures. Also, a new design consideration to linearize the voltage control oscillator is proposed. Experimental results are obtained in an on-chip fractional synthesizer manufactured in CMOS technology.