Apparatus and methods for adjusting voltage controlled oscillator gain

• US 8,456,244 B2
• Filed: 05/03/2011
• Issued: 06/04/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/03/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Skyworks Solutions Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Skyworks Solutions Incorporated
• Inventors: Obkircher, Thomas, Agarwal, Bipul, Chen, Wei-Hong
• Primary Examiner(s): Johnson, Ryan
• Application Number:
  US13/100,167
• Publication Number:
  US 20120280730A1
• Time in Patent Office: 763 Days
• Field of Search: 331/2, 331/16, 331/17, 327/147, 327/148, 327/156, 327/157
• US Class Current: 331/16
• CPC Class Codes: H03B 5/1212 the amplifier comprising a pair of transistors, wherein an output terminal of each being connected to an input terminal of the other, e.g. a cross coupled pair
• CPC Class Codes: H03L 2207/04 Modifications for maintaining constant the phase-locked loop damping factor when other loop parameters change
• CPC Class Codes: H03L 7/08 Details of the phase-locked loop
• CPC Class Codes: H03L 7/0898 the source or sink current values being variable H03L7/0896 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H03L 7/093 using special filtering or amplification characteristics in the loop H03L7/087 - H03L7/091 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H03L 7/099 concerning mainly the controlled oscillator of the loop
• CPC Class Codes: H03L 7/1072 by changing characteristics of the charge pump, e.g. changing the gain
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 7/0331 with a digital phase-locked loop [PLL] processing binary samples, e.g. add/subtract logic for correction of receiver clock H04L7/0337 takes precedence

Abstract

Apparatus and methods for adjusting a gain of an electronic oscillator, such as a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO), are disclosed. In one aspect, an apparatus for compensating for VCO gain variations includes a charge pump controller. The charge pump controller can be configured to select a VCO gain model based on a comparison of a VCO gain indicator and a threshold value stored in a memory, obtain VCO gain model parameters from the memory corresponding to the selected VCO gain model, and compute a charge pump current control value using the VCO gain model parameters. The charge pump current control value can be used to compensate for VCO gain variations.

Claims

1. A method of compensating for variations in a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) gain, the method comprising:

selecting a VCO gain adjustment model based on a VCO gain indicator and at least one threshold value stored in a memory;

obtaining VCO gain adjustment model parameters from the memory;

computing a charge pump control value using the VCO gain adjustment model parameters; and

dynamically compensating for VCO gain variations using the charge pump control value.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the VCO gain indicator is indicative of a VCO output frequency.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the VCO gain indicator is indicative of a capacitance value in a tunable capacitance circuit configured to control a frequency of a VCO output.

4. A method of claim 3 compensating for variations in a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) gain, the method comprising:

selecting a VCO gain adjustment model based on a VCO gain indicator indicative of a capacitance value in a tunable capacitance circuit configured to control a frequency of a VCO output, said selecting the gain adjustment model including comparing the capacitance value to a threshold value

obtaining VCO gain adjustment model parameters from a memory;

computing a charge pump control value using the VCO gain adjustment model parameters; and

dynamically compensating for VCO gain variations using the charge pump control value.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the gain adjustment parameters include a slope and an offset.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein obtaining VCO gain adjustment model parameters is based on a VCO selected from a plurality of VCOs.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising computing the VCO gain model parameters, and storing the VCO gain model parameters to the memory.

8. An apparatus comprising

a charge pump controller configured to

select a VCO gain model based on a comparison of a VCO gain indicator and at least one threshold value stored in a memory;

obtain VCO gain model parameters, from the memory, corresponding to the selected VCO gain model; and

compute a charge pump control value using the VCO gain model parameters.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein the VCO gain indicator is indicative of VCO output frequency.

10. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein the VCO gain indicator is indicative of a capacitance value in a circuit configured to control a VCO output frequency, and the threshold values stored in the memory represent threshold capacitance values.

11. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein the VCO gain model parameters correspond to a plurality of VCOs, and the charge pump controller is further configured to obtain VCO gain model parameters corresponding to one VCO selected from the plurality of VCOs.

12. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein the VCO gain model parameters include at least a slope and an offset.

13. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein the charge pump controller is further configured to dynamically cause a gain of a VCO to be adjusted based on the charge pump control value.

14. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein the VCO gain model represents a portion of a VCO correction curve, the VCO correction curve representing the VCO output frequency indicator versus the charge pump control value.

15. The apparatus of claim 8 further comprising a phase-locked loop, the phase-locked loop including a VCO and a charge pump, the charge pump configured to receive the charge pump current control value from the charge pump controller, and the charge pump further configured to adjust a gain of the VCO based on the charge pump current control value.

16. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein the charge pump controller is further configured to compute the VCO gain model parameters and the at least one threshold value, and to store the VCO gain model parameters and the at least one threshold value to the memory.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein the charge pump controller is configured to compute the VCO gain model parameters in response to detecting a calibration event.

18. The apparatus of claim 8 further comprising the memory to store VCO gain model parameters and threshold values.

19. The apparatus of claim 18 wherein the memory includes at least one look-up table to store at least one of the threshold values and the VCO gain model parameters.

20. An apparatus comprising:

means for selecting a VCO gain model based on a comparison of a VCO gain indicator and at least one threshold value stored in a memory;

means for obtaining VCO gain model parameters from the memory corresponding to the selected VCO gain model; and

means for computing a charge pump current control value using the VCO gain model parameters.

21. The apparatus of claim 20 configured as a base station.

22. An apparatus comprising a charge pump controller, the charge pump current controller including:

a memory configured to store VCO gain model parameters and threshold values; and

an arithmetic logic unit configured to select a VCO gain model based on a comparison of a VCO gain indicator and at least one threshold value stored in the memory;

obtain VCO gain model parameters, from the memory, corresponding to the selected VCO gain model; and

compute a charge pump control value using the VCO gain model parameters.

23. The apparatus of claim 22 wherein the VCO gain indicator is indicative of a capacitance value in a circuit configured to control a VCO output frequency, and the threshold values stored in the memory represent threshold capacitance values.

24. The apparatus of claim 22 wherein the arithmetic logic unit is further configured to obtain VCO gain model parameters corresponding to one VCO selected from a plurality of VCOs based on the comparison.

25. The apparatus of claim 22 wherein the VCO gain model parameters stored in the memory include at least a slope and an offset.