Digitally controlled delay-locked loops

A delay-locked loop comprising:

• a phase detector;
• control logic that generates digital signals in response to an output signal of the phase detector;
• a delay chain generating a delay that varies in response to the digital signals;
• and
• a delay circuit that delays a feedback signal derived from the delay chain to generate a delayed feedback signal, wherein the delayed feedback signal is transmitted to an input of the phase detector,
• wherein the delay of the delay chain varies by a discrete time period in response to changes in logic states of the digital signals, the delay of the delay chain increases by the discrete time period in response to each of a first set of changes in the digital signals, the delay of the delay chain decreases by the discrete time period in response to each of a second set of changes in the digital signals, and the delay of the delay circuit is less than the discrete time period.

A digitally controlled delay-locked loop comprising:

• a phase detector;
• control logic that generates digital signals in response to an output signal of the phase detector;
• a delay chain generating a delay that varies in response to the digital signals;
• a first delay circuit that delays an input reference clock signal to generate a delayed reference clock signal, wherein the delayed reference clock signal is transmitted to the phase detector, and a lock mode window of the digitally controlled delay-locked loop is set by the delay generated by the first delay circuit;
• a frequency divider circuit that divides a frequency of the input reference clock signal to generate a divided reference clock signal that is provided to an input of the delay chain;
• and
• a second delay circuit that delays a feedback clock signal from the delay chain to generate a delayed feedback signal, wherein the delayed feedback signal is transmitted to an input of the phase detector.

A digitally controlled delay-locked loop comprising:

• a phase detector generating an output signal in response to a reference clock signal;
• control logic that generates digital signals in response to the output signal of the phase detector;
• and
• a delay chain generating a delay in a feedback clock signal that varies in response to the digital signals from the control logic,
• wherein the delay in the feedback clock signal varies by a discrete time period in response to a change in logic states of the digital signals, and a maximum phase error between a phase of the reference clock signal and a phase of the feedback clock signal is less than the discrete time period when the digitally controlled delay-locked loop is in a lock mode, and
• wherein the maximum phase error between the phase of the reference clock signal and the phase of the feedback clock signal in the lock mode is at least one-half of the discrete time period.

A digitally controlled delay-locked loop comprising:

• a first phase detector generating an output signal in response to a reference clock signal;
• control logic that generates digital signals in response to the output signal of the first phase detector;
• a delay chain generating a delay in a feedback clock signal that varies in response to the digital signals from the control logic,
• wherein the delay in the feedback clock signal varies by a discrete time period in response to a change in logic states of the digital signals, and a maximum phase error between a phase of the reference clock signal and a phase of the feedback clock signal is less than the discrete time period when the digitally controlled delay-locked loop is in a lock mode;
• a first delay circuit that delays the feedback clock signal to generate a delayed feedback signal, wherein the delayed feedback signal is transmitted to an input of the first phase detector, and a delay of the first delay circuit is less than the discrete time period;
• a second phase detector that receives the delayed feedback signal at a first input;
• and
• a second delay circuit that delays the reference clock signal to generate a delayed reference clock signal, wherein the delayed reference clock signal is transmitted to a second input of the second phase detector.

A delay-locked loop comprising:

• a first phase detector that compares a delayed feedback signal and a reference signal;
• control logic that generates digital signals in response to an output signal of the first phase detector;
• a delay chain generating a delay in a feedback signal that varies in response to the digital signals;
• and
• a delay circuit that delays the feedback signal to generate the delayed feedback signal,
• wherein the delay of the delay chain varies by a discrete time period in response to a change in logic states of the digital signals, and the delay of the delay circuit is less than the discrete time period, and wherein the first phase detector has a zero hold time.

A delay-locked loop comprising:

• a first phase detector that compares a delayed feedback signal and a reference signal;
• control logic that generates digital signals in response to an output signal of the first phase detector;
• a delay chain generating in a feedback signal that varies in response to the digital signals;
• a delay circuit that delays the feedback signal to generate the delayed feedback signal,
• wherein the delay of the delay chain varies by a discrete time period in response to a change in logic states of the digital signals and the delay of the delay circuit is less than the discrete time period;
• and
• a second phase detector coupled to receive the delayed feedback signal, wherein the control logic generates the digital signals in response to output signals of the first and the second phase detectors, and the second phase detector has a zero setup time.

A delay-locked loop comprising:

• a first phase detector that compares phases of a delayed feedback clock signal and a reference clock signal;
• control logic that generates digital signals in response to an output signal of the first phase detector;
• a delay chain that generates a delay in a feedback clock signal, wherein the delay chain causes the delay in the feedback clock signal to vary by a discrete time period in response to each change in logic states of the digital signals;
• and
• a first delay circuit that delays the feedback clock signal by a delay that is less than the discrete time period to generate the delayed feedback clock signal;
• a second delay circuit that delays the reference clock signal to generate a delayed reference clock signal;
• and
• a second phase detector that compares phases of the delayed feedback clock signal and the delayed reference clock signal.

A delay-locked loop comprising:

• a first phase detector that compares phases of a delayed feedback clock signal and a reference clock signal;
• control logic that generates digital signals in response to an output signal of the first phase detector;
• a delay chain that generates a delay in a feedback clock signal, wherein the delay chain causes the delay in the feedback clock signal to vary by a discrete time period in response to each change in logic states of the digital signals;
• and
• a delay circuit that delays the feedback clock signal by a delay that is less than the discrete time period to generate the delayed feedback clock signal,
• wherein the delay of the delay circuit equals 0.75 times the discrete time period.

A delay-locked loop comprising:

• a phase detector coupled to receive a delayed reference clock signal;
• control logic that generates digital signals in response to an output signal of the phase detector;
• a delay chain that generates a delay in a feedback clock signal, wherein the delay chain causes the delay in the feedback clock signal to vary by a discrete time period in response to changes in logic states of the digital signals, the delay chain increases the delay generated in the feedback clock signal by the discrete time period in response to each of a first set of changes in the digital signals, and the delay chain decreases the delay generated in the feedback clock signal by the discrete time period in response to each of a second set of changes in the digital signals;
• and
• a first delay circuit that delays a reference clock signal by a first delay to generate the delayed reference clock signal,
• wherein the first delay of the first delay circuit is less than twice the discrete time period.

A method for generating a clock signal using a delay-locked loop, the method comprising:

• comparing phases of first and second clock signals to generate an output signal;
• generating digital signals in response to the output signal;
• delaying the first clock signal to generate a feedback clock signal;
• increasing a delay provided to the first clock signal to generate the feedback clock signal by a discrete time period in response to each of a first set of changes in the digital signals;
• decreasing the delay provided to the first clock signal to generate the feedback clock signal by the discrete time period in response to each of a second set of changes in the digital signals;
• and
• delaying the feedback clock signal by a delay to generate the second clock signal, wherein the delay provided to the feedback clock signal to generate the second clock signal is less than the discrete time period.