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Low Cost Built-in Sensor Testing of Phase-Locked Loop Dynamic Parameters

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Abstract

Phase-locked loops (PLLs) serve as core building blocks for communication systems and are often used to synthesize IO clocks for data synchronization and frequency sources for RF conversion. Testing of PLL loop performance is consequently important for guaranteeing the reliability of the underlying communication systems. In this paper, a low cost testing method based on loop triggering and use of built-in analog sensors (small number of transistors) to accurately predict phase-locked loop dynamic parameters is proposed. The sensor responses show strong statistical correlation with the PLL parameters being tested. Accordingly, supervised learning is applied to predict the required PLL parameters from the observed sensor response after “training”. In order to verify analog sensor testing in PLL loop response evaluation, an off-the-shelf PLL and a PLL on printed circuit board (PCB) are tested using this method. The results are analyzed and shown with high correlation to loop parameters. Parameters including charge pump current, voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) gain, bandwidth, phase margin, and locking time are predicted accurately to prove the viability of the proposed test method.

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Acknowledgment

The authors would like to acknowledge Texas Instruments for help on CMOS technology access, and Hittite for the PLL EVB support. Especially the authors want to thank Jeff Galloway, Randy Caplan, and Chung-Chun Chen for advice on circuit design and system operation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30308, USA

    Sen-Wen Hsiao, Xian Wang & Abhijit Chatterjee

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  1. Sen-Wen Hsiao
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  2. Xian Wang
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  3. Abhijit Chatterjee
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Correspondence to Sen-Wen Hsiao.

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Responsible Editor: J.-L. Huang

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Hsiao, SW., Wang, X. & Chatterjee, A. Low Cost Built-in Sensor Testing of Phase-Locked Loop Dynamic Parameters. J Electron Test 30, 515–526 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10836-014-5474-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10836-014-5474-4

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