Discrete-Time, Linear Periodically Time-Variant Phase-Locked Loop Model for Jitter Analysis

Timing jitter is one of the most significant phase-locked loop (PLL) characteristics, which directly affects the performance of the system in which the PLL is used. It is, therefore, important to develop the tools necessary to study and predict PLL jitter performance at design time. In this paper a discrete-time, linear, periodically time-variant integer-N PLL model for jitter analysis is proposed, which accounts for the periodically time-varying effect of noise injected into the loop at various PLL components, such as VCO, charge pump, VCO buffer, VCO control node, and divider. The model also predicts the aliasing of jitter due to the downsampling and upsampling of the jitter signal around the PLL loop. Closed-form expressions are derived for the output jitter spectrum and match well with results of event-driven simulations of a third-order PLL.