Apparatus and method for improving lock time
阅读说明:本技术 用于改善锁定时间的装置和方法 (Apparatus and method for improving lock time ) 是由 W·李 M·纳斯罗拉西 K·恩谷因 于 2018-06-29 设计创作,主要内容包括:本发明提供一种用于改善锁相环的锁定时间的装置,其中,该装置包括:环形振荡器,其包括至少两个延迟级,其中每个延迟级具有可控制的延迟;以及多相频率监测器,耦接到环形振荡器以监测环形振荡器的至少两个延迟级的输出处的频率。(The invention provides a device for improving the locking time of a phase-locked loop, wherein the device comprises: a ring oscillator comprising at least two delay stages, wherein each delay stage has a controllable delay; and a multi-phase frequency monitor coupled to the ring oscillator to monitor a frequency at an output of at least two delay stages of the ring oscillator.)
1. An apparatus, comprising:
an oscillator comprising at least two delay circuits coupled together in a ring, wherein each delay circuit has an adjustable propagation delay;
a first counter coupled to an output of a first delay circuit of the at least two delay circuits; and
a second counter coupled to an output of a second delay circuit of the at least two delay circuits, wherein the delay of the at least two delay circuits is adjusted according to the outputs of the first and second counters.
2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein each delay circuit comprises a first circuit to control a first delay of the delay circuit and a second circuit to control a second delay of the delay circuit, wherein the first delay is greater than the second delay.
3. The apparatus of claim 1, comprising:
a first timing circuit coupled to an output of the first counter; and
a second timing circuit coupled to an output of the second counter.
4. The apparatus of claim 3, comprising a frequency divider coupled to the first and second timing circuits, wherein the frequency divider provides a clock to sample inputs of the first and second timing circuits.
5. The device of claim 1, comprising logic to generate an average of outputs of the first and second timing circuits.
6. The apparatus of claim 1, comprising a frequency divider coupled to an output of the oscillator.
7. The apparatus of claim 6, comprising one of a phase detector, a phase frequency detector, or a time-to-digital converter coupled to an output of the oscillator.
8. The apparatus of claim 7, comprising a lock detector coupled to an output of the phase frequency detector.
9. The apparatus of claim 8, comprising a loop filter to receive an output of the phase frequency detector, wherein an output of the loop filter is coupled to the oscillator.
10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein an output of the loop filter is to adjust a delay of each delay circuit by a first delay amount, wherein outputs of the first and second counters are to adjust a delay of each delay circuit by a second delay amount, wherein the first delay amount is shorter than the second delay amount.
11. An apparatus, comprising:
a ring oscillator comprising at least two delay stages, wherein each delay stage has a controllable delay; and
a multi-phase frequency monitor coupled to the ring oscillator for monitoring frequencies at outputs of at least two delay stages of the ring oscillator.
12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the polyphase frequency monitor comprises at least two counters that count respective frequencies of the at least two delay stages.
13. The apparatus of claim 11, comprising logic to generate an average frequency based on respective frequencies of the at least two delay stages.
14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the logic is to adjust the delay of the at least two delay stages of the ring oscillator according to the average frequency.
15. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein each delay stage comprises a first circuit to control a first delay of the delay stage and a second circuit to control a second delay of the delay stage, wherein the first delay is greater than the second delay.
16. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the ring oscillator is part of a phase locked loop.
17. A system, comprising:
a memory;
a processor coupled to the memory, wherein the processor comprises a phase locked loop comprising the apparatus of any of claims 1 to 10; and
a wireless interface allowing the processor to communicate with another device.
18. A system, comprising:
a memory;
a processor coupled to the memory, wherein the processor comprises a phase locked loop comprising the apparatus of any of claims 11 to 15; and
a wireless interface allowing the processor to communicate with another device.
19. An apparatus, comprising:
means for enabling a first electrical loop comprising an oscillator and a multi-phase monitor coupled to the oscillator;
means for determining a first code to adjust a propagation delay of a delay circuit of the oscillator, wherein the first code is determined from one or more outputs of the multi-phase monitor;
means for applying the first code to the delay circuit;
means for freezing the first code when a lock indicator indicates that the frequency of the oscillator is substantially close to a target frequency;
means for disabling the first electrical loop; and
means for enabling a second electrical loop comprising a frequency divider, a phase detector, a filter, and an oscillator, wherein the second electrical loop provides a second code to the oscillator to adjust a delay of a delay circuit.
20. The device of claim 19, comprising means for monitoring phase error and determining whether to increase or decrease a value of the second code.
21. A method, comprising:
enabling a first electrical loop comprising an oscillator and a multi-phase monitor coupled to the oscillator;
determining a first code to adjust a propagation delay of a delay circuit of the oscillator, wherein the first code is determined from one or more outputs of the multi-phase monitor;
applying the first code to the delay circuit;
freezing the first code when a lock indicator indicates that the frequency of the oscillator is substantially close to a target frequency;
disabling the first electrical loop; and
enabling a second electrical loop comprising a frequency divider, a phase detector, a filter, and an oscillator, wherein the second electrical loop provides a second code to the oscillator to adjust a delay of the delay circuit.
22. The method of claim 21, comprising: monitoring phase error and determining whether to increase or decrease the value of the second code.
Background
In clock systems using a ring oscillator based phase locked loop, multi-band oscillators are commonly used for power equalization, dynamic range, and adjustment range for temperature drift. However, existing clock sources have long lock times, which increases the delay in entering a low power state or the delay that exists in entering and exiting from a low power state.
Drawings
Embodiments of the present disclosure will be understood more fully from the detailed description given below and from the accompanying drawings of various embodiments of the disclosure, which, however, should not be taken to limit the disclosure to the specific embodiments, but are for explanation and understanding only.
Figure 1A illustrates a ring oscillator capable of coarse/fine grain delay adjustment according to some embodiments.
Fig. 1B illustrates a graph showing frequency and code for different coarse and fine granularity adjustments, in accordance with some embodiments.
Fig. 2 illustrates a counter-based frequency measurement device according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.
FIG. 3 illustrates a clock system having a multi-phase frequency measurement device coupled to a ring oscillator according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.
Fig. 4 illustrates a Phase Locked Loop (PLL) having an apparatus for improving lock time according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.
Fig. 5A shows a timing diagram illustrating the lock time of a conventional PLL.
Fig. 5B illustrates a timing diagram showing reduced lock times for a PLL using a multi-phase frequency measurement device, in accordance with some embodiments.
Fig. 6 illustrates a PLL having an apparatus for improving lock time according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.
FIG. 7 illustrates a flow diagram of a method for reducing lock time, according to some embodiments.
Fig. 8 illustrates a smart device on chip or computer system or SoC (system on a chip) having an apparatus for improving lock time according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.
Detailed Description
To save power, a narrow tuning range of the ring oscillator for the Phase Locked Loop (PLL) is needed, which is just enough to cover voltage and temperature (e.g., -40 to 125 ℃) drift. To cover a wide frequency range, coarse grain tuning is used depending on the application. For example, the coarse-grained adjustment range of core clocks for a processor, such as a general purpose processor, may be in the range of 1.6GHz to 4.0GHz, while the fine-grained adjustment range may be in the range of +/-10%. Herein, the term "coarse-grained code" refers to a digital code used to calibrate or adjust an electrical parameter, such as propagation delay through a circuit element, by a coarse-grained amount.
Conversely, the term "fine-grained code" refers to a digital code used to calibrate or adjust an electrical parameter in a smaller amount than the amount of coarse-grained used by a coarse-grained code. Typically, coarse-grained code is applied to the circuit elements before fine-grained code is applied. The term "adjusting" or "calibrating" with reference to the coarse/fine property generally refers to adjusting the value of a coarse-grained code or a fine-grained code. Herein, the term "code" refers to a digital signature of two or more bits.
Calibrating the coarse/fine granularity adjustment of the ring oscillator to select the correct frequency band or target frequency band may directly affect the lock time of the phase locked loop PLL (or frequency locked loop FLL). The lock time is a performance parameter that indicates when the PLL or FLL has obtained phase and/or frequency lock with respect to the reference clock. In general, when a PLL is declared to be locked, the output of the PLL may be safely used by downstream logic. The lock-on time may affect how often the system enters a low power mode (e.g., sleep state) and returns to an active mode (e.g., operational state) to conserve power. For example, after the PLL declares a successful lock, an operational state or an active state will be declared. In some low power states, the PLL supply voltage may be reduced or shut down, causing the PLL to lose lock. To regain lock, the PLL must begin phase and frequency adjustment until lock is again achieved. This process is time consuming and directly affects the speed at which the processor enters an operational state from a low power consumption state.
When the adjustment process of adjusting coarse/fine-grained codes is accelerated to improve the lock time, a loss of precision may result. Inaccuracies in the frequency adjustment due to acceleration of coarse/fine grain calibration may result in long lock times (e.g., periodic slips) or, in extreme cases, inability to lock.
Various embodiments improve lock time by multiphase frequency measurement. Some embodiments describe an apparatus that shortens the frequency measurement time with the same accuracy (as in the case of long or conventional frequency measurement times) by utilizing the intermediate phase available in the ring oscillator. For example, the intermediate phases from various delay stages or elements in the ring oscillator are monitored to determine the frequency of the oscillator. This frequency information from the intermediate phase is then used to calibrate the coarse-grained code, which results in a faster adjustment of the oscillator frequency towards the target frequency. After the coarse-grained code is determined, the fine-grained code is adjusted to fine-tune the oscillator frequency to achieve the target or desired frequency. Some embodiments directly illustrate the improvement in lock time proportional to the number of stages in the ring oscillator. Since the lock time is mainly determined by coarse grain adjustment, the shortened frequency measurement time can directly shorten the lock time in the PLL. Other technical effects will become apparent from the various embodiments and the accompanying drawings.
In the following description, numerous details are discussed to provide a more thorough explanation of embodiments of the present disclosure. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that the embodiments of the present disclosure may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form, rather than in detail, in order to avoid obscuring embodiments of the present disclosure.
Note that in the respective drawings of the embodiments, signals are represented by lines. Some lines may be thicker to indicate more constituent signal paths and/or have arrows at one or more ends to indicate primary information flow direction. Such indications are not intended to be limiting. Rather, these lines are used in connection with one or more exemplary embodiments to facilitate easier understanding of a circuit or logic unit. Any represented signal may actually comprise one or more signals that may propagate in either direction and may be implemented with any suitable type of signal scheme, as dictated by design needs or tendencies.
Throughout the specification and in the claims, the term "connected" refers to a direct connection, such as an electrical, mechanical, or magnetic connection, between the connected objects, without any intervening devices. The term "coupled" refers to a direct or indirect connection through one or more passive or active intermediary devices, such as a direct electrical, mechanical, or magnetic connection or indirect connection between the objects being connected. The term "circuit" or "module" may refer to one or more passive and/or active components arranged to cooperate with each other to provide a desired function. The term "signal" may refer to at least one current signal, voltage signal, magnetic signal, or data/clock signal. The meaning of "a", "an" and "the" includes plural forms. The meaning of "in.
The term "scaling" generally refers to converting a design (schematic and layout) from one processing technique to another and then reducing its layout area. The term "scaling" also generally refers to reducing the layout and equipment within the same technology node. The term "scaling" may also refer to adjusting (e.g., slowing down or speeding up-i.e., respectively scaling down or amplifying) the signal frequency relative to another parameter (e.g., the power supply level). The terms "substantially", "close", "approximately", "close" and "approximately" typically mean within +/-10% of a target value.
Unless otherwise specified the use of the ordinal adjectives "first", "second", and "third", etc., to describe a common object, merely indicate that different instances of like objects are being referred to, and are not intended to imply that the objects so described must be in a given sequence, either temporally, spatially, in ranking, or in any other manner.
For the purposes of this disclosure, the phrases "a and/or B" and "a or B" refer to (a), (B), or (a and B). For the purposes of this disclosure, the phrase "A, B and/or C" refers to (a), (B), (C), (a and B), (a and C), (B and C), or (A, B and C).
In the description and claims, the terms "left," "right," "front," "back," "top," "bottom," "over," "under," and the like (if any) are used for descriptive purposes and not necessarily for describing permanent relative positions. For the purposes of this disclosure, the terms "spin" and "magnetic moment" are used equally. More strictly speaking, the direction of the spin is opposite to the direction of the magnetic moment, and the charge of the particle is negative (for example in the case of electrons).
For purposes of example, the transistors in the various circuits and logic blocks described herein are Metal Oxide Semiconductor (MOS) transistors or derivatives thereof, where MOS transistors include drain, source, gate, and bulk terminals. The transistors and/or MOS transistor derivatives further include Tri-Gate and FinFET transistors, cylindrical fully-wrapped-Gate transistors, tunneling fets (tfets), square or rectangular ribbon transistors, ferroelectric fets (fefets), or other devices that perform a transistor function, such as carbon nanotubes or spintronic devices. The symmetrical source and drain terminals of the MOSFET are the same terminal and may be used interchangeably herein. TFET devices, on the other hand, have asymmetric source and drain terminals. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that other transistors, such as bipolar junction transistors (BJTs PNP/NPN), BiCMOS, CMOS, etc., may be used without departing from the scope of the present disclosure.
It should be noted that those elements of fig. 3 having the same reference numbers (or names) as the elements of any other figure can operate or function in any manner similar to that described, but are not limited to such.
Fig. 1A illustrates a
In this example,
In some embodiments, switch SW1To SWNImplemented as devices such as n-type transistors, p-type transistors, or a combination of both. In some embodiments, the capacitive device is implemented as a transistor configured as a capacitor, a metal capacitor, or a hybrid of a transistor and a metal capacitor. The various embodiments are not limited to a particular architecture of the ring oscillator. For example, instead of MP1To MPNAnd MN1To MNNEach delay stage of the ring oscillator may include a large capacitance device for coarse tuning and a small capacitance device for fine tuning, andto add a capacitive device to the output node using digitally controlled switches. Although a
Fig. 1B illustrates a
Fig. 2 illustrates a counter-based
In some embodiments, the output of
In various embodiments, a Finite State Machine (FSM)204 is provided that receives measured frequency data from the outputs of two or more delay stages of a ring oscillator and uses the data to determine an average frequency. FSM204 then compares the average frequency to the target frequency to determine whether to increase or decrease the value of the coarse-grained code. The coarse-grained code is then provided to all delay stages of the ring oscillator for coarse-grained adjustment. In one example, the measurement accuracy is 2/N (f)REF) Wherein f isREFIs the frequency of the reference clock. In a ring oscillator with a minimum band separation of 20MHz, the required accuracy is 10 MHz. Using a 100MHz reference clock, N is 20. With a binary search algorithm designed with a 10-bit coarse-grained adjustment, finding the best frequency band would take 200 clock cycles. This may result in the consumption of a lock time of 2 microseconds. In some embodiments, FSM204 applies the flowchart of fig. 7 to implement a fast lock architecture.
Fig. 3 illustrates a
By tapping the middle nodes of the
In order to illustrate how the accuracy is improved,suppose the oscillation frequency (fosc) is 40.4fREF. In the original scheme of counting the final output of the
Fig. 4 illustrates a Phase Locked Loop (PLL)400 having means for improving lock time according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. In some embodiments,
The
Here, two feedback loops are shown. The first feedback loop is a short loop and includes the
In some embodiments, the multiphase frequency monitor 404 monitors the output out of each delay stage of the
After FSM 304 determines that the oscillator clock frequency is close to the target frequency (e.g., within 10%), the first feedback loop is disabled and the second feedback loop is enabled. For example, the
In some embodiments, PD or
In some embodiments, the
Fig. 5A shows a timing diagram 500 illustrating the lock time of a conventional phase locked loop. Fig. 5B illustrates a timing diagram 520 showing reduced lock time for a phase locked loop using a multi-phase frequency measurement device, in accordance with some embodiments. In timing diagram 500, the lock time begins after reset (e.g., a signal that causes the PLL to begin locking). After reset, the PLL uses its conventional feedback loop to determine the coarse grain code. Once the coarse-grained code is determined, the "done" signal is determined and the fine-grained code is set for final locking of the PLL. In the timing diagram 500, a search from coarse-grained codes begins immediately after reset using a short feedback loop. Thus, determining coarse-grained code is faster (e.g., 10 times faster) than in the conventional case of timing diagram 500. Once the coarse-grained code is determined, the signal is determined to be "complete" and the first feedback loop (or short feedback loop) is disabled and the second feedback loop (or normal long feedback loop) is enabled to determine the fine-grained code. Once the fine-grained code is set (e.g., within a tolerance), a lock signal is determined.
Fig. 6 illustrates a
Fig. 7 illustrates a flow diagram 700 of a method for reducing lock time, in accordance with some embodiments. At
Fig. 8 illustrates a smart device or computer system or SoC (system on a chip) having an apparatus for improving lock time according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. In some embodiments,
In some embodiments, according to some embodiments discussed, the
In some embodiments, processor 1610 (and/or processor 1690) may include one or more physical devices, such as microprocessors, application processors, microcontrollers, programmable logic devices, or other processing means. The processing operations performed by
In some embodiments,
In some embodiments,
In some embodiments,
As described above, I/
In some embodiments, I/
In some embodiments,
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