An on-chip transfer function measurement of PLLs with triangular modulated stimulus

Abstract

This paper proposes an on-chip measurement method of PLL transfer function. In our proposed scheme, we modulated the phase of the PLL input in triangular form using Digital-to-Time Converter (DTC) and read out the response by Time-to-Digital Converter (TDC). Combination of the DTC and TDC can obtain the transfer function of the PLL both in the amplitude domain and the phase domain. Since the DTC and TDC can be controlled and observed by digital signals, the measurement can be conducted without any high speed analog signal. Moreover, since the DTC and TDC can be designed symmetrically, the measurement method is robust against PVT variations. MATLAB simulation results demonstrated the measurement of the transfer function.