Quadrature-based injection locking of ring oscillators

摘要

Technologies are generally described for quadrature-based injection-locking of ring oscillators. In some examples, an external signal may be injected into a ring oscillator. Phase signals may be measured from within the ring oscillator and used to determine a mean quadrature error (MQE) that characterizes the difference in frequency between the external signal and the ring oscillator's natural frequency. A control signal may then be generated from the MQE and used to adjust the ring oscillator natural frequency to reduce the difference between the ring oscillator natural frequency and the external signal.

主权项

1. A method to injection-lock a ring oscillator having a plurality of inverters and a natural frequency, the method comprising:
injecting an external signal with an injection frequency into the plurality of inverters; detecting a first phase signal, formed from a coupling of the natural frequency and the injection frequency, from a first inverter in the plurality of inverters; detecting a second phase signal, formed from the coupling of the natural frequency and the injection frequency, from a second inverter in the plurality of inverters; determining a mean quadrature error (MQE) from at least the first phase signal and the second phase signal; generating a control signal from the determined MQE; and adjusting the natural frequency of the ring oscillator based on the control signal.