| Patent application number | Description | Published |
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| 20090079483 | DELAY CIRCUITS MATCHING DELAYS OF SYNCHRONOUS CIRCUITS - Delay circuits capable of providing delays closely matching propagation delays of synchronous circuits are described. In one design, an apparatus includes a synchronous circuit and a delay circuit. The synchronous circuit includes a forward path from a data input to a data output. The synchronous circuit receives input data and provides output data with a propagation delay. The delay circuit receives an input signal and provides a delayed input signal having a delay matching the propagation delay of the synchronous circuit. The delay circuit includes at least two logic gates in the forward path of the synchronous circuit. The synchronous and delay circuits may be implemented based on the same or similar circuit architecture. The delay circuit may be based on a replica of the synchronous circuit, with the replica having feedback loops broken and clock input coupled to appropriate logic value to always enable the delay circuit. | 03-26-2009 |
| 20090091393 | DUAL-PATH CURRENT AMPLIFIER - A dual-path current amplifier having a slow high-gain path and a fast low-gain path is described. In one design, the slow high-gain path is implemented with a positive feedback loop and has a gain of greater than one and a bandwidth determined by a pole. The fast low-gain path has unity gain and wide bandwidth. The two signal paths receive an input current and provide first and seconds currents. A summer sums the first and second currents and provides an output current for the dual-path current amplifier. The dual-path current amplifier may be implemented with first and second current mirrors. The first current mirror may implement the fast low-gain path. The first and second current mirrors may be coupled together and implement the slow high-gain path. The first current mirror may be implemented with P-FETs. The second current mirror may be implemented with N-FETs, an operational amplifier, and a capacitor. | 04-09-2009 |
| 20090160519 | PROGRAMMABLE DELAY CIRCUIT WITH INTEGER AND FRACTIONAL TIME RESOLUTION - A programmable delay circuit capable of providing a delay with integer and fractional time resolution is described. In one exemplary design, an apparatus includes first and second delay circuits. The first delay circuit provides a first delay of an integer number of time units. The second delay circuit couples to the first delay circuit and provides a second delay of a fraction of one time unit. The first delay circuit may include multiple unit delay cells coupled in series. Each unit delay cell may provide a delay of one time unit when enabled. The second delay circuit may have first and second paths. The first path may provide a shorter delay when selected, and the second path may provide a longer delay when selected. The second path may be coupled to at least one dummy logic gate that provides extra loading to obtain the longer delay for the second path. | 06-25-2009 |
| 20100117700 | TECHNIQUES FOR MINIMIZING CONTROL VOLTAGE RIPPLE DUE TO CHARGE PUMP LEAKAGE IN PHASE LOCKED LOOP CIRCUITS - Techniques for adaptively control of a loop filter sampling interval to mitigate the effects of charge pump leakage current in an apparatus including a phase lock loop circuit are provided. In one aspect, the apparatus includes a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO), a phase frequency detector (PFD) providing a phase comparison operation, a loop filter providing a control voltage to lock the VCO to a desired operating frequency, and a charge pump configured to provide an output signal to the loop filter in response to at least one of an UP pulse and a DOWN pulse. The apparatus further includes a sampling switch, coupled between an input of the loop filter, an output of the charge pump, and characterized by a sampling interval. A sampling switch controller is configured to adaptively control the width of the sampling interval in order to mitigate the effects of leakage current from the charge pump by closing the sampling switch in advance of the phase comparison operation and opening the sampling switch when the phase comparison operation is completed. | 05-13-2010 |
| 20100117701 | TECHNIQUES FOR MINIMIZING CONTROL VOLTAGE NOISE DUE TO CHARGE PUMP LEAKAGE IN PHASE LOCKED LOOP CIRCUITS - Techniques for adaptively control of a loop filter sampling interval to mitigate the effects of charge pump output noise in an apparatus including a phase lock loop circuit are provided. In one aspect, the apparatus includes a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO), a phase frequency detector (PFD) providing a phase comparison operation, a loop filter providing a control voltage to lock the VCO to a desired operating frequency, and a charge pump configured to provide an output signal to the loop filter in response to at least one of an UP pulse and a DOWN pulse. The apparatus further includes a sampling switch, coupled between an input of the loop filter, an output of the charge pump, and characterized by a sampling interval. A sampling switch controller is configured to adaptively control the width of the sampling interval in order to mitigate the effects of output noise from the charge pump by closing the sampling switch in advance of the phase comparison operation and opening the sampling switch when the phase comparison operation is completed. | 05-13-2010 |
| 20100194471 | PERIODIC TIMING JIPERIODIC TIMING JITTER REDUCTION IN OSCILLATORY SYSTEMS - A device including a voltage regulator with an adaptive switching frequency circuit for noise-sensitive analog circuits, such as oscillatory systems with phase-lock loops (PLLs) and voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs) is described. In an exemplary embodiment, the device includes a reference clock oscillator, a low-jitter oscillator, a power supply including a clock signal input to regulate a power supply voltage for the low-jitter oscillator, a clock detector to generate a clock detector control signal when the low-jitter oscillator output frequency is stable, and a multiplexer to select between a reference clock oscillator output signal and a low-jitter oscillator output signal as the clock signal input to the power supply to mitigate effects of period jitter in the low-jitter oscillator output signal when the clock detector control signal is asserted. In a further exemplary embodiment, a clock detector control signal is configured to control the multiplexer to select the low-jitter oscillator output signal as the clock signal input to the power supply when the low-jitter oscillator output frequency is stable. | 08-05-2010 |
| 20100271140 | Supply-Regulated Phase-Locked Loop (PLL) and Method of Using - A supply-regulated Phase-locked loop (PLL) is provided. The PLL comprises a supply-regulating loop, a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO), and a programmable decoupling capacitor array for the VCO. The capacitance of the VCO decoupling capacitor array is adjustable to be equal to N times C | 10-28-2010 |
| 20100283552 | FLICKER NOISE CANCELLATION IN OSCILLATORS - An oscillator is disclosed. The oscillator includes a first capacitor. The oscillator also includes a second capacitor. The oscillator further includes a first current source. The oscillator also includes a second current source. The oscillator further includes a comparator that has a first input and a second input. The oscillator also includes a reference node. The oscillator further includes a controller that is configured to selectively couple the first current source to the first capacitor and the second current source to the reference node during a first time period. | 11-11-2010 |
| 20110063929 | DELAY LINE THAT TRACKS SETUP TIME OF A LATCHING ELEMENT OVER PVT - A latching element latches incoming data into an integrated circuit. The latching element (for example, a latch or flip-flop) can be considered to include a data path portion, a clock path portion, and an ideal latching element. In one embodiment, an open-loop replica of the data path portion is disposed in a clock signal path between a clock input terminal of the integrated circuit and a clock input lead of the latching element. In a second embodiment, an additional replica of the clock path portion is disposed in a data signal path between a data terminal of the integrated circuit and a data input lead of the latching element. The replica circuits help prevent changes in skew between a data path propagation time to the ideal latching element and clock path propagation time to the ideal latching element. Setup times remain substantially constant over PVT (process, supply voltage, temperature). | 03-17-2011 |
| 20110090940 | DUTY CYCLE CORRECTION CIRCUITRY - Closed-loop techniques for adjusting the duty cycle of a cyclical signal, e.g., a clock signal, to approach a target value. In an exemplary embodiment, a charge pump is coupled to a charge and sample module, which drives a de-skew circuit in a negative feedback loop. The charge and sample module couples the charge pump to the integration capacitor during two of four successive phases, and also couples the integration capacitor to sampling capacitors during the other two of the four successive phases. The voltages across the sampling capacitors may be used to control the de-skew circuit, which adjusts the duty cycle of a cyclical signal to be adjusted. | 04-21-2011 |
