An agile VCO frequency-calibration technique for a 10-GHz CMOS PLL

This paper reports an agile VCO frequency calibration technique and its application on a 10-GHz CMOS integer-N phase-locked loop. The proposed calibration method accomplishes efficient search for an optimum VCO discrete tuning curve among a group of frequency sub-bands. The agility is attributed to a proposed frequency comparison technique which is based on measuring the period difference between two signals. Other mixed-signal circuits are also developed to facilitate this approach. The PLL incorporating the proposed calibration technique is implemented in a 0.18-mu m CMOS process. The measured PLL phase noise at 10 GHz is -102 dBc/Hz at 1-MHz offset frequency and the reference spurs are lower than -48 dBc. The PLL consumes 44 mW in the low-current mode. The calibration time is less than 4 mu s.