Dual mode clock using a common resonator and associated method of use

• US 9,581,973 B1
• Filed: 03/29/2016
• Issued: 02/28/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/29/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Integrated Device Technology Incorporated (Renesas Electronics Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Integrated Device Technology Incorporated (Renesas Electronics Corporation)
• Inventors: Aycock, Stephen E., Goyal, Pankaj, Bal, Jagdeep
• Primary Examiner(s): Hernandez, William
• Application Number:
  US15/083,831
• Time in Patent Office: 336 Days
• Field of Search: 327/291, 327/293, 327/295
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G04F 5/04 using oscillators with electromechanical resonators producing electric oscillations or timing pulses
• CPC Class Codes: G04G 3/02 Circuits for deriving low frequency timing pulses from pulses of higher frequency pulse frequency dividers in general H03K23/00 - H03K29/00
• CPC Class Codes: H03B 2200/0082 Lowering the supply voltage and saving power
• CPC Class Codes: H03B 5/32 being a piezoelectric resonator selection of piezoelectric material H10N30/00
• CPC Class Codes: H03B 5/364 the amplifier comprising field effect transistors H03B5/366 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 5/15006 with two programmable outputs

Abstract

An integrated circuit comprising, a resonator, a first clock circuit for generating a first clock signal having a first frequency in response to the resonator, a second clock circuit for generating a second clock signal having a second frequency in response to the resonator, wherein the second frequency of the second clock signal is determined by the programmable frequency divider and a clock mode control circuit coupled to the first clock circuit and the second clock circuit, the clock mode control circuit for gradually switching the resonator between the first oscillator circuit and the second oscillator circuit of the integrated circuit, using a shift register based state machine and utilizing the inertia of the resonator to smoothly transition between the two oscillators, to provide a dual mode clock output signal.

Claims

1. An integrated circuit providing a dual mode clock output signal, the integrated circuit comprising:

a resonator;

a first clock circuit having a first oscillator circuit coupled to the resonator, the first clock circuit for generating a first clock signal having a first frequency in response to the resonator;

a second clock circuit having a second oscillator circuit coupled to the resonator and a programmable frequency divider, the second clock circuit for generating a second clock signal having a second frequency in response to the resonator, wherein the second frequency of the second clock signal is determined by the programmable frequency divider; and

a clock mode control circuit coupled to the first clock circuit and the second clock circuit, the clock mode control circuit for gradually switching the resonator between the first oscillator circuit and the second oscillator circuit to provide a dual mode clock output signal.

2. The integrated circuit of claim 1, wherein the resonator is a MHz resonant frequency, the first frequency of the first clock signal is a MHz frequency clock signal and the second frequency of the second clock signal is a KHz frequency clock signal.

3. The integrated circuit of claim 1, wherein the first frequency of the first clock signal is higher than the second frequency of the second clock signal.

4. The integrated circuit of claim 1, wherein the first oscillator circuit is a high performance oscillator circuit.

5. The integrated circuit of claim 1, wherein the second oscillator circuit is a low power oscillator circuit.

6. The integrated circuit of claim 1, wherein the first clock circuit further comprises a first clock detection circuit coupled to an output of the first oscillator circuit.

7. The integrated circuit of claim 6, wherein the second clock circuit further comprises a second clock detection circuit coupled to an output of the second oscillator circuit.

8. The integrated circuit of claim 7, wherein the second clock circuit further comprises a low power bias circuit coupled to the second oscillator circuit, the second clock detection circuit and the programmable frequency divider.

9. The integrated circuit of claim 1, further comprising a shared bias resistor coupled across the resonator.

10. The integrated circuit of claim 1, wherein the first oscillator circuit comprises an inverting amplifier.

11. The integrated circuit of claim 1, wherein the second oscillator circuit comprises a current starved amplifier.

12. The integrated circuit of claim 1, wherein the first oscillator circuit and the second oscillator circuit each comprise a plurality of switches and the clock mode control circuit further comprises a first shift register based state machine for controlling the plurality of switches to gradually switch the resonator between the first oscillator circuit and the second oscillator circuit.

13. The integrated circuit of claim 1, wherein the first oscillator circuit further comprises two programmable on-chip crystal load tuning capacitors and the clock mode control circuit further comprises a second shift register based state machine for gradually varying the two programmable on-chip crystal load tuning capacitors across the resonator.

14. An integrated circuit providing a dual mode clock output signal, the integrated circuit comprising:

a resonator having a resonant frequency;

a high performance clock circuit having an inverting amplifier based oscillator circuit, the high performance clock circuit for generating a first clock signal having a first frequency in response to the resonant frequency of the resonator;

a low power clock circuit having a current starved amplifier based oscillator circuit and a programmable frequency divider, the low power clock circuit for generating a second clock signal having a second frequency in response to the resonator, wherein the second frequency of the second clock signal is different than the first frequency of the first clock signal; and

a clock mode control circuit coupled to the high performance clock circuit and the low power clock circuit, the clock mode control circuit for gradually switching the resonator between the inverting amplifier based oscillator circuit and the current starved amplifier based oscillator circuit to provide a dual mode clock output signal.

15. A method of generating a dual mode clock output signal, the method comprising:

coupling a resonator to a first oscillator circuit of a first clock circuit, the first clock circuit for generating a first clock signal having a first frequency in response to the resonator;

coupling the resonator to a second oscillator circuit of a second clock circuit, the second clock circuit for generating a second clock signal having a second frequency in response to the resonator, wherein the second frequency of the second clock signal is determined by a programmable frequency divider of the second clock circuit;

coupling a clock mode control circuit to the first clock circuit and the second clock circuit; and

operating the clock mode control circuit to gradually switch the resonator between the first oscillator circuit and the second oscillator circuit to generate a dual mode clock output signal.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the first clock circuit is a high performance clock circuit.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the second clock circuit is a low power clock circuit.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the first frequency of the first clock signal is higher than the second frequency of the second clock signal.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein the first oscillator circuit and the second oscillator circuit each comprise a plurality of switches and operating the clock mode control circuit to gradually switch the clock output signal between the first clock signal and the second clock signal further comprises, operating the clock mode control circuit to control the switches to gradually switch between the first oscillator circuit and the second oscillator circuit.

20. The method circuit of claim 15, wherein the first oscillator circuit further comprises two programmable on-chip crystal load tuning capacitors and operating the clock mode control circuit to gradually switch a clock output signal between the first clock signal and the second clock signal further comprises, operating the clock mode control circuit to gradually switch the two programmable on-chip crystal load tuning capacitors across the resonator.