Auto-adaptive digital phase-locked loop for large frequency multiplication factors

1. An auto-adaptive digital phase locked loop (DPLL) comprising:

(a) a phase detector including:

(i) an edge detector having an input that receives an input clock, and an output that outputs a reference event generated from a reference edge of the input clock,

(ii) a programmable first counter that counts down at a generated clock rate, the first counter having a first input that is programmed with an integer value M, a second input that receives the generated clock, and an output that outputs a counter state based on the generated clock and the integer value M, and

(iii) a first register having a first input that receives the reference event, a second input that receives the counter state, and an output that outputs a sample value N(t), wherein the register stores the counter state as the sampled value N(t) that represents a code for a phase between the reference event and the counter state; and

(b) a frequency synthesizer coupled to the phase detector, the frequency synthesizer outputting, to at least the phase detector, the generated clock at a frequency proportional to the sample value N(t).

2. The auto-adaptive digital phase loop (DPLL) of claim 1 , wherein the frequency synthesizer includes:

(i) a K-phase oscillator having a first output that outputs a phase reference Φ ref signal, and a plurality of K second outputs that output K phase signals φ K , where K is a positive integer that is greater than one,

(ii) an oscillator output control circuit having a first input that receives a transcoder transfer function L(N), a second input that receives the phase reference Φ ref signal, and an output that outputs a phase select signal, and

(iii) a multiplexer having a first input that receives the phase select signal, a second input that receives the K phase signals Φ K , and an output that outputs the generated clock according to the phase select signal.

3. The auto-adaptive digital phase locked loop (DPLL) of claim 2 further comprising:

(e) an oscillator transfer function circuit including:

(i) a transcoder having a first input that receives the sampled value N(t),

(ii) a second input that receives a measured value N 1 ,

(iii) a third input that receives a set value L 1 ,

(iv) a fourth input that receives a calibrate signal, and

(v) an output for outputting a calculated transfer function L(N).

4. The auto-adaptive digital phase locked loop (DPLL) of claim 3 wherein the oscillator transfer function circuit further includes:

(vi) a multiplexer having a first input that receives the calculated transfer function L(N),

(vii) a second input that receives an external value L external ,

(viii) a third input that receives a bypass signal, and

(ix) an output for outputting the calculated transfer function and the set value L 1 .

5. The auto-adaptive digital phase-locked loop (DPLL) of claim 1 wherein the input clock has at least one selectable reference edge which may be selected to be a rising edge, a falling edge or both the rising and the falling edges.

6. The auto-adaptive digital phase-locked loop (DPLL) of claim 1 wherein the integer value M ranges from about 100 to about 5000.

7. An auto-adaptive digital phase locked loop (DPLL) comprising:

(a) a frequency synthesizer that outputs a generated clock including:

(i) a K-phase oscillator having a first output that outputs a phase reference Φ ref signal, and a plurality of K second outputs that output K phase signals Φ K , where K is a positive integer that is greater than one,

(ii) an oscillator output control circuit having a first input that receives a transcoder transfer function L(N), a second input that receives the phase reference Φ ref signal, and an output that outputs a phase select signal, and

(iii) a multiplexer having a first input that receives the phase select signal, a second input that receives the K phase signals Φ K , and an output that outputs the generated clock according to the phase select signal; and

(b) a phase detector coupled to the frequency synthesizer, the phase detector determining a sample phase N(t) according to the generated clock signal and an input clock signal input to the phase detector, the phase detector applying an integer value M to the generated clock signal.

8. The auto-adaptive digital phase locked loop (DPLL) of claim 7 wherein the K-phase oscillator has a fixed divider with a K value that is a power of 2 (e.g., 2 x , where x=0, 1, 2, 3, . . . ) for defining K phase signals.

9. The auto-adaptive digital phase-locked loop (DPLL) of claim 7 wherein the DPLL locks the generated clock to within a single reference clock period (T ref ).

10. The auto-adaptive digital phase-locked loop (DPLL) of claim 7 wherein the generated clock has a scalable frequency range.

11. A method of producing a generated clock frequency output for an auto-adaptive digital phase locked loop, the method comprising:

(a) inputting an input clock signal into a first input of an edge detector of a phase detector circuit that generates an output reference event;

(b) programming a first counter of the phase detector circuit into a first counter input with an integer value M and inputting the generated clock into a second input of the first counter, the first counter outputting a counter state;

(c) inputting the reference event into a first input and inputting the counter state into a second input of a first register of the phase detector circuit that outputs a sampled code N(t), where t denotes normalized time (t=time/T ref) ;

(d) inputting the generated clock into a second counter of a parameter acquisition circuit that counts down and outputs a measured value N 1 at a predetermined interval;

(e) inputting the reference event and the measured value N 1 into a second register of the parameter acquisition circuit for storage and for outputting the measured value N 1 as needed;

(f) inputting a calculated value L(N) and the reference event into a third register of the parameter acquisition circuit for storage and outputting a set value L 1 as needed;

(g) inputting the sampled code N(t) into a first input, inputting the measured value N 1 into a second input, and inputting the set value L 1 into a third input of a transcoder that outputs a transfer function L(N) to a first multiplexer of an oscillator transfer function circuit;

(h) inputting a calculated value L(N) into a first input and inputting a reference phase signal Φ ref into a second input of an oscillator output control circuit that outputs a phase select signal;

(i) inputting a plurality of K phase signals Φ K generated by a free-running K-phase oscillator into a first input and inputting the phase select signal into a second input of a multiplexer of a frequency synthesizer circuit; and

(j) selecting and outputting a phase signal Φ i from the plurality of K phase output signals Φ K by the multiplexer of the frequency synthesizer circuit from the K-phase oscillator by using the phase select signal generated by the oscillator output control wherein Φ i is the generated clock frequency.