Back to results
US 9,755,817 B2Granted
Compact phase interpolator
AssigneeQUALCOMM Incorporated
InventorsEskinder Hailu, Hanan Cohen, Li Sun, Zhiqin Chen
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A phase interpolator is provided with a plurality of slices. Each slice includes a first switch for mixing a first clock signal into an interpolated output signal and a second switch for mixing a second clock signal into the interpolated output signal. In response to a high-resolution signal, at least one of the slices may switch on both the first switch and the second switch.
Claims13
A phase interpolator, comprising:
- a first thermometer encoder configured to encode a tuning signal into an encoded tuning signal having a plurality of bits;
- an output node;
- and
- a digital mixer including a plurality of slices corresponding on a one-to-one basis to the plurality of bits in the encoded tuning signal, and wherein each slice includes a first switch configured to couple a first clock signal to the output node responsive to an assertion of a corresponding bit in the encoded tuning signal and includes a second switch configured to couple a second clock signal to the output node responsive to an assertion of a complement of the corresponding bit in the encoded tuning signal, and wherein a first slice in the plurality of slices is further configured to couple simultaneously the second clock signal and the first clock signal to the output node responsive to an assertion of an additional digital tuning signal and an assertion of the corresponding bit in the encoded tuning signal.
1 more element
A method, comprising:
- thermometer encoding a tuning signal into an encoded tuning signal having a plurality of bits corresponding on a one-to-one basis to a plurality of slices in a mixer, wherein each bit is either asserted or de-asserted responsive to a digital value for the tuning signal;
- in each slice, switching on a first switch to couple a first clock signal through the slice's switched-on first switch to an output node for the mixer responsive to an assertion of the corresponding bit in the encoded tuning signal;
- in each slice, switching on a second switch to couple a second clock signal through the slice's switched-on second switch to the output node responsive to a de-assertion of the corresponding bit in the encoded tuning signal;
- and
- in a first slice in the plurality of slices, switching on the second switch and switching on the first switch to simultaneously couple the first clock signal and the second clock signal to the output node responsive to an assertion of a one-bit additional tuning signal and an assertion of the corresponding bit in the encoded tuning signal.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.