Analysis of jitter due to power-supply noise in phase-locked loops

Abstract

Phase-locked loops (PLL) in RF and mixed signal VLSI circuits experience supply noise which translates to a timing jitter. In this paper an analysis of the timing jitter due to the noise on the power supply rails is presented. Stochastic models of the power supply noise in VLSI circuits for different values of on-chip decoupling capacitances are presented first. This is followed by calculation of the phase noise of the voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) in terms of the statistical properties of supply noise. Finally the timing jitter of the PLL is predicted in response to the VCO phase noise. A PLL circuit has been designed in 0.35 /spl mu/m CMOS process, and our mathematical model was applied to determine the timing jitter. Experimental results prove the accuracy of the predicted model.