Spurious Tone Suppression Techniques Applied to a Wide-Bandwidth 2.4 GHz Fractional-N PLL

This paper demonstrates that spurious tones in the output of a fractional-N PLL can be reduced by replacing the DeltaSigma modulator with a new type of digital quantizer and adding a charge pump offset combined with a sampled loop filter. It describes the underlying mechanisms of the spurious tones, proposes techniques that mitigate the effects of the mechanisms, and presents a phase noise cancelling 2.4 GHz ISM-band CMOS PLL that demonstrates the techniques. The PLL has a 975 kHz loop bandwidth and a 12 MHz reference. Its phase noise has a worst-case reference spur power of - 70 dBc and a worst-case in-band fractional spur power of -64 dBc.