Redundant dco tuning with overlapping fractional regions

A digitally controlled oscillator (DCO) circuit, comprising:

• a tuning circuit configured to tune an oscillation frequency of the DCO circuit based on processing an integer tuning codeword and a fractional tuning codeword associated with an input tuning codeword, wherein the input tuning codeword comprises a set of integer bits and a set of fractional bits, and wherein the tuning circuit comprises:
• an integer tuning circuit configured to process the integer tuning codeword based on switching a plurality of integer tuning capacitors associated therewith, in order to implement the input tuning codeword, wherein the integer tuning codeword comprises an integer tuning range associated therewith;
• and
• a fractional tuning circuit configured to process the fractional tuning codeword based on switching a plurality of fractional tuning capacitors associated therewith, in order to implement the input tuning word, wherein the fractional tuning codeword comprises a fractional tuning range associated therewith;
• wherein the fractional tuning range associated with the fractional tuning codeword is configured to cover more than one step of the integer tuning range associated with the integer tuning codeword.

A method for tuning an oscillation frequency of a digitally controlled oscillator (DCO) circuit, comprising:

• processing an integer tuning codeword associated with an input tuning codeword at an integer tuning circuit comprising a plurality of integer tuning capacitors, based on switching the plurality of integer tuning capacitors, in order to implement the input tuning codeword, wherein the integer tuning codeword comprises an integer tuning range associated therewith;
• and
• processing a fractional tuning codeword associated with the input tuning codeword at a fractional tuning circuit comprising a plurality of fractional tuning capacitors, associated with the DCO circuit, based on switching the plurality of fractional tuning capacitors, in order to implement the input tuning codeword, wherein the fractional tuning codeword comprises a fractional tuning range associated therewith;
• wherein the fractional tuning range associated with the fractional tuning codeword is configured to cover more than one step of the integer tuning range associated with the integer tuning codeword.