Bit synchronizing circuit

• US 20030223522A1
• Filed: 03/19/2003
• Published: 12/04/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 03/22/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Fukushima, Masanobu
• Granted Patent: US 7,251,304 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 375/354
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 7/0338 the correction of the phase error being performed by a feed forward loop

Abstract

A bit synchronizing circuit that provides highly reliable data transmission at a high speed is provided. The circuit facilitates testing by using a plurality of clock signals that are generated based on a reference clock signal, each of the clock signals having unique phases. The circuit selects one of the clock signals as a writing clock signal that is suitable for a clock signal for synchronizing serial data, based on a synchronous timing signal. The synchronous timing signal is generated based on an edge signal that is generated based on an edge position of serial data. The edge position is determined for a plurality of groups of the clock signals, each group consisting of clock signals chosen every predetermined number of the clock signals.

Claims

1. A bit synchronizing circuit that synchronizes serial data by a clock signal when transmitting bit data, comprising:

a phase comparison clock generation unit for generating a plurality of clock signals based on a predetermined reference clock signal, each of the clock signals having a unique phase different from other clock signals,

a plurality of edge detection units, each unit being for generating an edge signal that indicates an edge position of the serial data, wherein each of the detection units is supplied with a group of the clock signals, the group of the clock signals consisting of every predetermined number of the clock signals generated by the phase comparison clock generation unit,

a clock judging unit for generating a synchronous timing signal based on the edge signal generated by each of -the edge detection units, and

a clock selection unit for selecting a clock signal for writing that is suitable for a clock signal for synchronizing the serial data, the selection being made from the clock signals, each of which is in a different phase, based on the synchronous timing signal generated by the clock judging unit.

2. The bit synchronizing circuit as claimed in claim 1, wherein, when the clock selection unit detects an abnormality in any one of the edge signals generated by the edge detection units, said selected clock signal for writing is re-selected, instead of the synchronous timing signal generated by the clock judging unit relative to the abnormal edge signal.

3. The bit synchronizing circuit as claimed in claim 1, wherein the clock judging unit suspends output of the synchronous timing signal to the clock selection unit in a cycle when two or more edge signals are generated by any one of the edge detection units in the cycle.

4. The bit synchronizing circuit as claimed in claim 1, wherein, when the synchronous timing signals generated by the clock judging unit continue in time, a synchronous timing signal representing an edge detection position, which comes the latest in time among the synchronous timing signals that continue in time, is selected as the clock signal for writing.

5. The bit synchronizing circuit as claimed in claim 1, wherein the clock judging unit generates an error status signal that indicates that a bit synchronizing circuit is in error, when an edge signal generated by any one of the edge detection units is abnormal.

6. The bit synchronizing circuit as claimed in claim 5, wherein the clock selection unit generates the clock signal for writing having the same timing as an immediately preceding clock signal for writing, when the error status signal that indicates that the bit synchronizing circuit is in error is generated.

7. The bit synchronizing circuit as claimed in claim 1, wherein components comprising the edge detection unit are arranged symmetrically in view of input terminals for the clock signals that have phases different from each other, and the serial data input signal.

8. A semiconductor device comprising the bit synchronizing circuit as claimed in claim 1, wherein testing of the bit synchronizing circuit can be performed by using an error status signal output by the clock judging unit, which indicates that the bit synchronizing circuit is in error, when any one of the edge signals generated by the edge detection units is abnormal.