A 2.3 mW Multi-Frequency Clock Generator with −137 dBc/Hz Phase Noise VCO in 180 nm Digital CMOS Technology

Abstract

A fast phase frequency detector (PFD) and low gain low phase noise voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO)-based phase-locked loop (PLL) design are presented in this paper. PLL works in the frequency range of 0.025–1.6[Formula: see text]GHz, targeting various SoC applications. The proposed PFD, designed using CMOS dynamic logic, is fast and improves the locking time, dead zone and blind zone in the PLL. The standard CMOS inverter gate-based pseudo differential VCO is used in the PLL. Also, CMOS inverter is used as variable capacitor to tune the frequency of VCO with control voltage. The proposed PLL is designed in a 180[Formula: see text]nm CMOS process with supply voltage of 1.8[Formula: see text]V. The phase noise of VCO is [Formula: see text][Formula: see text]dBc/Hz at an offset frequency of 100[Formula: see text]MHz. The reference clock of 25[Formula: see text]MHz synthesizes the output clock of 1.6[Formula: see text]GHz with rms jitter of 0.642[Formula: see text]ps.