All Digital Phase-locked Loop Quantization Noise Of Nonlinear Model To Improve And Its Validation In The Phase Noise

With the advancement of CMOS process and fabrication, it has been a trend to maximize digital design while minimize analog correspondents in mixed-signal system designs. So is the case for PLL. PLL has always been a traditional mixed-signal system limited by analog part performance. Around 2000, there emerged ADPLL of which all the blocks besides oscillator are implemented in digital circuits. There have been successful examples in application of Bluetooth, and it is moving to improve results for application of WiMax and ad-hoc frequency hopping communication link. Based on the theoretic and measurement results of existing materials, ADPLL has shown advantages such as fast time-to-market, low area, low cost and better system integration; but it also showed disadvantages in frequency resolution and phase noise, etc. Also this new topic still opens questions in many researching points important to PLL such as tracking behavior and quantization effect.In this thesis, a non-linear phase domain model for all digital phase-locked loop (ADPLL) was established and validated. Based on that, we analyzed that ADPLL phase noise prediction derived from traditional linear quantization model became inaccurate in non-linear cases because its probability density of quantization error did not meet the premise assumption of linear model. The phenomena of bandwidth expansion and in-band phase noise decreasing peculiar to integer-N ADPLL were demonstrated and explained by matlab and verilog behavior level simulation test bench. The expression of threshold quantization step was defined and derived as the method to distinguish whether an integer-N ADPLL was in non-linear cases or not, and the results conformed to those of matlab simulation. A simplified approximation model for non-linear integer-N ADPLL with noise sources was established to predict in-band phase noise, and the trends of the results conformed to those of matlab simulation. Other basic analysis serving for the conclusions above covered:ADPLL loop dynamics, traditional linear theory and its quantitative limitations and numerical analysis of random number. Finally, a present measurement setup was demonstrated and the results were analyzed for future work.