Methods and devices for error correction of a signal using delta sigma modulation

1. A method for generating an error-corrected timing signal in a numerically-controlled oscillator, the numerically controlled-oscillator including a phase accumulator clocked at a clock cycle by an oscillator signal, the method comprising:

in each clock cycle, generating a modulated phase increment value based on a stored phase increment value by

shifting the phase increment value by a predetermined bit shift to create an error correction step size,

adding a sign to the error correction step size based upon a delta-sigma modulated error signal to produce a signed error correction step size, and

adding the signed error correction step size to the phase increment value to produce the modulated phase increment value; and

in each clock cycle, adding the modulated phase increment value to an output value in the phase accumulator to create an updated output value, which is then stored in the phase accumulator.

2. The method claimed in claim 1 , wherein generating the modulated phase increment value requires no multiplication.

3. The method claimed in claim 1 , wherein the delta-sigma modulated error signal comprises a binary bitstream that pulse-density modulates an error measurement in the oscillator signal as compared to an external time base.

4. The method claimed in claim 3 , wherein adding the sign comprises making the error correction step size positive or negative depending upon the binary value of the delta-sigma modulated error signal.

5. The method claimed in claim 1 , further including generating the delta-sigma modulated error signal by:

comparing the oscillator signal to an external time base to produce an error measurement; and

delta-sigma modulating the error measurement to produce the delta-sigma modulated error signal.

6. The method claimed in claim 5 , wherein comparing comprises generating a timing signal at the same frequency as the external time base using the oscillator signal and comparing the timing signal with the external time base in a phase-locked loop.

7. The method claimed in claim 1 , wherein a crystal oscillator produces the oscillator signal.

8. A method for correcting long-term phase drift of a crystal oscillator in a numerically-controlled oscillator, the numerically controlled-oscillator having a phase increment value and including a phase accumulator clocked at a clock cycle by an oscillator signal from the crystal oscillator, the method comprising:

determining the phase error in the in oscillator signal in comparison with an external time base;

delta-sigma modulating the phase error to generate a delta-sigma error bitstream;

conditionally adding or subtracting an error correction step size from the phase increment value in each clock cycle based on the delta-sigma error bitstream, to create a modulated phase increment value; and

adding the modulated phase increment value to the phase accumulator to generate an error-corrected output digital signal.

9. The method claimed in claim 8 , wherein the conditionally adding or subtracting requires no multiplication.

10. The method claimed in claim 9 , wherein the method is implemented without requiring multiplication.

11. The method claimed in claim 8 , wherein conditionally adding or subtracting comprises setting a sign of the error correction step size and adding the signed error correction step size to the phase increment value.

12. The method claimed in claim 8 , wherein determining the phase error comprises:

generating a timing signal at the same frequency as the external time base using the oscillator signal; and

comparing the timing signal with the external time base in a phase-locked loop to determine the phase error.

13. A system for generating an error-corrected digital signal having a selected frequency based on a reference crystal oscillator, wherein the oscillator outputs an oscillator signal at an oscillator frequency, the system comprising:

a memory element storing a phase increment value;

a phase accumulator clocked at the oscillator frequency;

an error measurement circuit to determine the phase error in the oscillator signal in comparison with an external time base;

a delta-sigma modulator to modulate the phase error and produce a delta-sigma error bitstream; and

an error-correction circuit to conditionally add or subtract an error correction step size from the phase increment value in each clock cycle based on the delta-sigma error bitstream, to create a modulated phase increment value,

wherein the modulated phase increment value is added to the phase accumulator in each clock cycle to generate the error-corrected digital signal.

14. The system claimed in claim 13 , further comprising a plurality of phase increment values and corresponding phase accumulators and corresponding error-correction circuits having corresponding error correction step sizes, and wherein each error-correction circuit receives the common delta-sigma error bitstream to conditionally add or subtract its corresponding error correction step size from its corresponding phase increment value.

15. The system claimed in claim 14 , wherein each of the plurality of phase increment values and their respective corresponding phase accumulators and corresponding error-correction circuits comprise separate numerically-controlled oscillators each producing its respective error-corrected digital signal.

16. The system claimed in claim 15 , wherein each of the numerically-controlled oscillators is implemented without multipliers.

17. The system claimed in claim 13 , wherein the error-correction circuit includes a bit shifter to shift the phase increment value to generate the error correction step size.

18. A numerically-controlled oscillator for generating an error-corrected digital signal having a selected frequency based on a reference crystal oscillator, wherein the oscillator outputs an oscillator signal at an oscillator frequency, comprising:

a memory element storing a phase increment value;

an error-correction circuit including

a bit shifter to shift the phase increment value by a predetermined bit shift to create an error correction step size, wherein the error correction step size is given a sign based upon a delta-sigma modulated error signal to produce a signed error correction step size, and

an adder to produce a modulated phase increment value from the sum of the phase increment value and the signed error correction step size; and

a phase accumulator clocked at the oscillator frequency to add the modulated phase increment value to an output value to update and store the output value, wherein the updated output value is the error-corrected digital signal.

19. The numerically-controlled oscillator claimed in claim 18 , wherein error-correction circuit contains no multipliers.

20. The numerically-controlled oscillator claimed in claim 18 , wherein the error-correction circuit contains a delta-sigma modulator to receive an error measurement between the oscillator signal and an external time based, and wherein the delta-sigma error signal comprises a binary bitstream that pulse-density modulates the error measurement.

21. The numerically-controlled oscillator claimed in claim 20 , wherein the error-correction circuit includes a conditional logic element making the error correction step size positive or negative depending upon the binary value of the delta-sigma modulated error signal.

22. The numerically-controlled oscillator claimed in claim 18 , further comprising a crystal oscillator to produce the oscillator signal.