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Spur Analysis and Linearity Enhancement in Fractional-N Phase Locked Loops Through Parallel Sigma-Delta Modulators With Time Offsets

delete2026-01-01
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PRE
AI
J
Johan Holmstedt *
H
Henrik Sjöland
DOI:10.1109/OJCAS.2026.3655136delete
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Abstract

Abstract

En 中文
This article presents a theoretical framework for deriving simple analytical expressions for spurs resulting from second and third order nonlinearities in fractional-N phase locked loops (PLL). Furthermore, a previously proposed linearization technique where several sigma-delta modulators (SDMs) operate in parallel with relative time offsets between them, is further analyzed using the periodic nonlinearity noise (PNN) framework. Closed form expressions are derived for the spur components associated with second and third order nonlinearities, as well as for the expected suppression achieved by the linearization technique depending on the number of SDMs used. In particular, the effect of the accompanying phase rotation introduced by time-offsetting the SDMs is investigated under two conditions: one in which the phase rotation is compensated, and another in which it is left uncompensated. The analysis shows that effective suppression of third order nonlinearities requires compensating for this phase rotation. However, the suppression of second order nonlinearities remains largely insensitive to phase alignment, demonstrating robustness of the technique to phase offsets in that case. In addition, the quantization-noise interaction between the different parallel SDM paths is examined and characterized through simulations. The results demonstrate that the technique significantly improves linearity while also suppressing quantization noise from the SDM. Finally, an efficient hardware implementation is proposed.
Keywords:
Noise
Phase locked loops
Voltage-controlled oscillators
Quantization (signal)
Linearity
Linearization techniques
Detectors
Nonlinear distortion
Power demand
Costs
Phase-locked loop (PLL)
fractional spur
fractional-N
frequency synthesizer
linearization
non-linearity
phase detector (PD)

Journal

I
IEEE Open Journal of Circuits and Systems
IF:
2.4
Papers:
4.5K
Citations:
387

Organization

 
 lund university
Scholars:
1.3K
Papers: 593
Citations: 0
E
Eindhoven University of Technology
Scholars:
1.6W
Papers: 1.5W
Citations: 2.2W
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