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Noise and Spurious Tones Management Techniques for Multi-GHz RF-CMOS Frequency Synthesizers Operating in Large Mixed Analog-Digital SOCs

Abstract

This paper presents circuit techniques and power supply partitioning, filtering, and regulation methods aimed at reducing the phase noise and spurious tones in frequency synthesizers operating in large mixed analog-digital system-on-chip (SOC). The different noise and spur coupling mechanisms are presented together with solutions to minimize their impact on the overall PLL phase noise performance. Challenges specific to deep-submicron CMOS integration of multi-GHz PLLs are revealed, while new architectures that address these issues are presented. Layout techniques that help reducing the parasitic noise and spur coupling between digital and analog blocks are described. Combining system-level and circuit-level low noise design methods, low phase noise frequency synthesizers were achieved which are compatible with the demanding nowadays wireless communication standards.

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Correspondence to Adrian Maxim.

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Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Maxim, A. Noise and Spurious Tones Management Techniques for Multi-GHz RF-CMOS Frequency Synthesizers Operating in Large Mixed Analog-Digital SOCs. J Wireless Com Network 2006, 024853 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1155/WCN/2006/24853

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