Method and apparatus for generating on-chip clock with low power consumption

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-8994433-B2
Application number	US-201213350035-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 13, 2012
Priority date	Jan 13, 2012
Publication date	Mar 31, 2015
Grant date	Mar 31, 2015

Abstract

A fully on-chip clock generator on an integrated circuit (“IC”) includes a frequency detector for receiving a reference current and providing a first voltage; an error integrator for receiving the first voltage from the frequency detector, comparing it with a reference voltage, and providing a control voltage; a voltage controlled oscillator (“VCO”) for receiving the control voltage from the error integrator, and providing an output clock; and a logic controller on the IC, coupled between the VCO and the frequency detector, and generating logic control signals for controlling the frequency detector. The fully on-chip clock generator requires no external crystal, but its power consumption is significantly lower than a relaxation oscillator that generates the same clock frequency.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A clock generator on an integrated circuit (“IC”), comprising:
a frequency detection, receiving a reference current and providing a first voltage;
an error integrator, receiving the first voltage from the frequency detector, comparing it with a reference voltage, and providing a control voltage;
a voltage controlled oscillator (“VCO”), receiving the control voltage from the error integrator and providing an output clock;
a logic control circuit, genera…

Assignees

• Lin Yijing
• Analog Devices Inc

Inventors

• Lin Yijing

Classifications

• H03L7/02

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H03K3/011

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H03K3/0231 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic