Clock generating method and clock generating circuit

1. A clock generating circuit comprising:

a PLL (Phase-Locked Loop) circuit and a modulator,

wherein a frequency dividing ratio of a feedback-purpose frequency divider in said PLL circuit is changed in accordance with modulation data produced based upon a modulation profile of said modulator to perform a frequency modulation whereby a spectrum is spread,

wherein said modulator comprises a multiple modulation profile generating circuit, and moves a turning point of said modulation profile so as to disperse a degree of frequency,

wherein said modulator further comprises:

a ΔΣbit converting circuit; and

a modulation factor switching circuit,

wherein said ΔΣbit converting circuit performs a pulse width modulation by which a multiple modulation profile outputted by said multiple modulation profile generating circuit is converted into 1 bit, and

wherein said modulation factor switching circuit switches a frequency spread width which is determined based upon both the frequency dividing ratio of said feedback-purpose frequency divider and a value which is added to said frequency dividing ratio in response to the output of said ΔΣbit converting circuit.

2. A clock generating circuit as claimed in claim 1 wherein:

said multiple modulation profile generating circuit comprises:

a subtractor, a first comparator, a second comparator, a first up/down counter, and a second up/down counter;

said first up/down counter performs either a count-up operation or a countdown operation for a reference clock in response to either a count-up switching signal or a countdown switching signal, which are outputted by said first comparator, so as to output a modulation profile for a frequency spread;

said second up/down counter performs a counting operation of the output from said first comparator in response to either a count-up switching signal or a count-down switching signal outputted from said second comparator which compares both a minimum shift value and a maximum shift value, which determine a range of a re-spread, with output of the second up/down counter; and

said first comparator receives the output signal of said second up/down counter as a minimum comparison value, and also receives, as a maximum comparison value, an output signal which is obtained by subtracting the output signal of said second up/down counter from a predetermined maximum comparison value, so as to control the counting operation of said first up/down counter.

3. A clock generating circuit as claimed in claim 1 wherein:

said multiple modulation profile generating circuit comprises:

a subtractor, a comparator, a random number generator, an up/down counter, and a register,

said up/down counter performs either a count-up operation or a count-down operation for a reference clock in response to either a count-up switching signal or a count-down switching signal, which are outputted by said first comparator, so as to output a modulation profile for a frequency spread;

said register acquires random numbers generated by said random number generator in accordance with a count-up switching signal and a count-down switching signal, which are outputted from said comparator; and

said comparator receives the output signal of said register as a minimum comparison value, and also receives as a maximum comparison value, such an output signal which is obtained by subtracting the output signal of said register from a predetermined maximum comparison value, so as to control the counting operation of said up/down counter.

4. A clock generating circuit as claimed in claim 1 wherein:

said ΔΣbit converting circuit comprises:

a first adder, a second adder, a quantizer, and a register, and

said ΔΣbit converting circuit selects an arbitrary bit from an output of said register, and feeds back said selected bit to said multiple modulation profile generating circuit as re-spread purpose data;

said multiple modulation profile generating circuit comprises:

a subtractor, a comparator, an up/down counter, a first register, and a second register;

said up/down counter performs either a count-up operation or a count-down operation for a reference clock in response to either a count-up switching signal or a count-down switching signal, which are outputted by said first comparator, so as to output a modulation profile for a frequency spread;

said first register acquires the re-spread purpose data formed by said ΔΣbit converting circuit in accordance with said reference clock;

said second register acquires the output signal of said first register in accordance with both the count-up switching signal and the count-down switching signal, which are outputted by said comparator; and

said comparator receives the output signal of said second register as a minimum comparison value, and also receives as a maximum comparison value, such an output signal which is obtained by subtracting the output signal of said second register from a predetermined maximum comparison value, so as to control the counting operation of said up/down counter.