A self-calibrated 10Mb/s phase modulator with -37.4dB EVM based on a 10.1-to-12.4GHz, -246.6dB-FOM, fractional-N subsampling PLL
 
A self-calibrated 10Mb/s phase modulator with -37.4dB EVM based on a 10.1-to-12.4GHz, -246.6dB-FOM, fractional-N subsampling PLL 
 
Nereo Markulic, Nereo Markulic, Kuba Raczkowski, Kuba Raczkowski, Ewout Martens, Ewout Martens, Pedro Emiliano Paro Filho, Pedro Emiliano Paro Filho, Benjamin Hershberg, Benjamin Hershberg, Piet Wambacq, Piet Wambacq, Jan Craninckx, Jan Craninckx
 
Abstract 

The two-point injection scheme has proven to be an effective technique for overcoming the problem of PLL bandwidth limitations during wideband polar phase modulation. The quality of the phase-modulated signal, typically expressed in terms of error-vector magnitude (EVM), still remains limited by the PLL phase-noise, gain mismatch between the two injection paths and linearity of the digital-to-modulated phase conversion. We present a phase modulator that makes use of an analog, fractional-N, digital-to-time-converter (DTC)-based subsampling PLL that achieves -37.4dB EVM around a 10.24GHz fractional carrier during 10Mb/s GMSK modulation. The subsampling PLL architecture uses no power-consuming divider and allows wide PLL bandwidth (because of its high phase-error detection gain) for optimal VCO noise suppression. The VCO has a secondary, digitally controlled capacitor bank (modulating DAC) used during two-point modulation. The gain errors and nonlinearities in the digital-to-modulated phase conversion are automatically background-calibrated in both injection points: in the phase-error detection path (where nonlinearity is dominated by the DTC INL) and in the VCO modulating capacitor bank (where nonlinearity is dominated by capacitor mismatch and nonlinear capacitance-to-frequency conversion).