Patent · US Expired

Delay-locked loop having a plurality of lock modes

US7271634B1 · kind B1 · utility

30Cited by
3References
22Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateNov 23, 2005
Grant dateSep 18, 2007
Priority date
Expiry dateNov 23, 2025

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH03L7/0818
  • WIPO fieldBasic communication processes
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A delay-locked loop (DLL) has a counter that is incremented or decremented by the loop in the process of achieving lock. The counter value is converted using an digital to analog converter (DAC) to an analog voltage that controls the delay through the delay line. During faster lock modes, the loop increments/decrements intermediate bits of the counter (with the bits less significant being held at a constant value, e.g., 0) to provide a coarse lock, rather than incrementing/decrementing the least significant bit of the counter. After coarse lock is achieved, a better lock is then achieved by incrementing/decrementing the counter using a smaller increment, i.e., a less significant bit is updated, until finally, the LSB is utilized to achieve fine lock. Utilizing the coarse lock first, and then one or more finer locks, allows the lock to be achieved more quickly.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.