On-chip PLL phase and jitter self-test circuit

US5889435A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• Sun Microsystems Inc. · US

Inventors

• Larry D. Smith · San Jose, US
• Norman E. Abt · Burlingame, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Jun 30, 1997
• Grant date: Mar 30, 1999
• Expiry date: Jun 30, 2017

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G01R29/26
• WIPO field: Measurement
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

An ASIC includes a PLL and digital circuitry to quantize and measure phase and average maximum jitter between a system clock input to the PLL, and a PLL-generated clock signal. The system clock is input to a series-string of delay elements, each contributing a delay of about 1.DELTA.t. Each delay element is associated with a two-input logic element, such as an EX-OR gate or an EX-NOR gate. One input to each two-input logic element is a version of the PLL-generated clock delayed by about (N/2) .DELTA.t. The second input to the first EX-OR is the output from the first delay element, the second input to the first EX-NOR is the output from the second delay element, and so on. Whichever delay element outputs a signal most closely in phase with the delayed PLL-generated clock will have an associated two-input logic element signal with a minimum duty cycle. Each two-input logic element output signal is capacitor integrated, sampled, stored and digitized. The digitized output signal identifies the lowest duty cycle two-input logic element, and thus phase shift. The relative breadth of the integrated capacitor voltage profile provides a measure of average maximum jitter.