Digital phase detection circuit and method

• Main Authors: DAVIDSON ALLAN THOMAS, KHALAF MARWAN A, CARVALHO NEVILLE, ZHENG MICHAEL MENGHUI, BOWERSOX DANIEL
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 18.12.2012
• Subjects: AUTOMATIC CONTROL, STARTING, SYNCHRONISATION, OR STABILISATIONOF GENERATORS OF ELECTRONIC OSCILLATIONS OR PULSES; BASIC ELECTRONIC CIRCUITRY; ELECTRICITY; INFORMATION STORAGE; PHYSICS; PULSE TECHNIQUE; STATIC STORES

A digital phase detector circuit and corresponding monitor and control logic is presented. The digital phase detector has two storage elements, where the data input of the first storage element receives a first clock signal and the data input of the second storage element receives a second clock signal. A time shifter shifts the second clock signal by a shift period, and transmits the shifted signal to the clock input of the storage elements. The signals applied to the data inputs are transmitted from the storage elements when the clock input receives the shifted second clock signal from the time shifter. A monitor and control module samples the data output from the storage elements after each shifted second clock signal is transmitted by the time shifter. The sampling of the output data provides the data used to determine the time relationship between the first and the second clock signals.