Professional Documents
Culture Documents
FREQUENCY SYNTHESIZER
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of
the Degree of
MASTER OF TECHNOLOGY
(Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering)
(2014-2015)
By
ABSTRACT
Electronic signal source has gained much attention with the development of modem science
and technology. It requires wider frequency bandwidth, the frequency of high resolution and
a high degree of frequency stability, while produces complex waveforms, phase noise and
low spurious and can be programmed.
Nowadays frequency synthesis technique is the main technology to generate a large
number of high-precision frequency signal. The trend of development of synthesizer is the
higher frequency, stronger system functions, more advanced production process, higher
Integration , lower cost, lower power consumption.
Frequency synthesizer is an important component part of a communication system,
whose performance will directly affect the performance of equipment, especially on the
sensitivity and selectivity of the receiver. The PLL frequency synthesizing technology, which
develops fast recent years, has been the main design scheme of signal source, because of its
performance advantage .
Frequency synthesisers find many diverse applications within the electronics field.
Direct analogue synthesis is one of the oldest techniques, originally used in communications
and in apparatus such as laboratory signal generators. The availability of crystal-controlled
oscillators which allowed the output frequency of such synthesisers to be referenced to a
signal source whose frequency could be defined and controlled (for example within a
constant temperature environment) with some considerable accuracy was an important factor
in the development of such equipment.
INTRODUCTION
Phase Locked Loops are used in almost every communication system. Some of its
uses include recovering clock from digital data signals, performing frequency, phase
modulation and demodulation, recovering the carrier from satellite transmission sig-nals and
as a frequency synthesizer.
A frequency synthesizer is a circuit design that generate a new frequency from a single
stable reference frequency. Mostly a crystal oscillator is used for the reference frequency.
Most of the frequency synthesizer employ a Phase Locked Loops circuit, as this technique
has many advantages such as minimum complex architecture, low power consumption and a
maximum use of Large Scale Integration technology. There are many designs in
communication that require frequency synthesizer to generate a range of frequencies; such as
cordless telephones, mobile radios and other wireless products. For this reason most of the
communication designmake use of a PLL frequency synthesizer.
Phase locked loop is an approach as it covers many disciplines of electrical
engineering such as Communication Theory, Control Theory, Signal Analysis, Noise
Characterization, Design with transistors and op-Amps, Digital Circuit design and non-linear
circuit analysis.
Frequency Synthesizer:
Indirect Frequency Synthesizer ( IS): Indirect Frequency Synthesizer is greatly reduced the
shortcomings of direct frequency synthesizer.
Direct Digital Frequency Synthesizer (DDS): DDS has Small size, low-powered and High
frequency resolution, it is able to transform the actual Frequency which is real-time, c
ontinuous phase.
The three methods above is the technical foundation of modern frequency
synthesis technology. Having their own characteristics in terms of performance, they can not
be replaced by each other but good complement. Based on performance requirements, we can
4
combine application of these basic methods to obtain better performance of the frequency
synthesizer in practice.
1. Frequency standard
2. Frequency dividers
3. Frequency multipliers
4. Frequency changers
5. Controlled oscillators
1. Frequency Standard
Precision quartz crystal controlled oscillators are presently available with frequency
stabilities of the order of one part in 109 per day. Higher stabilities are available with the use
of atomic and molecular resonance as a reference standard.
2. Frequency Dividers
Many varieties of circuits are available as frequency dividers, ranging from
relaxation oscillators such as Multivibrators and blocking oscillators, to capacitive step
charging circuits. Digital counters, regenerative modulation frequency dividers, and locked
oscillators may also be used as frequency dividers.The choice depends on the particular
system requirements such as upper frequency limit, required reliability, etc.
3.Frequency Multipliers
Non-linear tuned amplifiers have long been used as frequency multipliers. Later
techniques such as the "drift-cancelled oscillator", the "impulse-governed oscillator", and the
"automatic phase control" loop offer attractive advantages for high multiplication ratios.
4. Frequency Changers
Conventional frequency changers or mixers, coupled with appropriate filters, are
widely used to translate frequencies suitable for synthesizing the required output.
5. Controlled Oscillators
The impulse-governed oscillator, and the closely related automatic phase control
(a.p.c.) loop are examples of integral control mechanisms widely studied under the class of
servo-mechanism control systems. The most important feature of this class of controlled
oscillator is that the system requires no steady-state error of the controlled variable, but
instead utilizes an error in the integral of the controlled variable, i.e. an error in phase
difference.
6. System Design
The design of all frequency synthesizers is based on the combination of these
basic elements discussed above. Many combinations are possible, and the ultimate choice
depends on the specific requirements such as frequency range, frequency increments,
spurious output, jitter, ease of operation, size, weight, reliability and economic factors.
Frequency Range:
It requires that frequency synthesizer can work properly in the specified
frequency range and discrete frequency points we specified, while meeting other performance
indicators.
Frequency Resolution:
Frequency resolution refers to the interval between the two adjacent frequency
Points , which named frequency interval.
Spectrum Purity:
There are two factors that affect the spectral purity:
phase noise and spurious.
Transistorization of frequency synthesizers for the high frequency band can be easily
achieved, with the usual resultant advantages of low power consumption, lightweight and
reliability.
Phase-locked Loop(PLL):
output signal
mobile communications employ a phase locked loop with a divide-by-N in the feedback loop.
This allows the channel to be switched conveniently by changing the value of the integer, N.
PLL-based Synthesisers
The use of PLLs in frequency synthesis is well-established. PLLs are flexible, but they
do have certain drawbacks; in particular they are limited in their ability to continuously
synthesise signals over a wide band of frequencies. The oscillator within the loop needs to be
band-switched in order to cover the frequencies associated, for example, with mobile
communications. Otherwise, a high conversion gain, Kv, is required, with a subsequent
increase of in-loop noise. However, the PLL itself cannot perform this task automatically, and
some extra circuitry is needed for this function.
1. Integer-N loops
10
Example:
Suppose the reference signal is 100 kHz, and the divider can be preset to any value
between 1 and 100. The error signal produced by the comparator will only be zero when the
output of the divider is also 100 kHz. For this to be the case, the VCO must run at a
frequency which is 100 kHz x the divider count value. Thus it will produce an output of
100 kHz for a count of 1, 200 kHz for a count of 2, 1 MHz for a count of 10 and so on. Note
that only whole multiples of the reference frequency can be obtained with the simplest integer
N dividers. Fractional N dividers are readily available.
2. Fractional-N PLL
11
A wide-band hybrid frequency synthesiser has ability to generate signals over a wide
range of frequencies as compared to a PLL-based synthesizer is an important feature.
Another feature of the design is the ability to automatically band switch the VCO
without the need for extra circuitry. The essential elements of the synthesiser, based. It is
similar in structure to a PLL, but in this synthesiser design the phase detector is replaced by a
digital frequency discriminator. In general the reference frequency fref is not equal to the
feedback
12
to
2. Another attraction of the design is the ability to directly band-switch the VCO without
the need for extra hardware.
Drawbacks:
13
1. The bandwidth of the synthesiser is limited only by the data width of the digital circuit
block and associated DAC inputs.
2. The major issue to be addressed in the future is the elimination of unwanted low-frequency
components present at the output of the frequency discriminator.
14
Advantage:
1. In using this software approach the accumulator can be loaded at any desired number and
be quite flexible.
2. The 68HC11 processor can manipulate 16-bit timer operations so that better resolution can
be achieved.
Drawback:
However, a single 8-bit output port was used here which limited the dynamic range of the
DAC, and, in turn, the control capability of the system.
1. the quadrature modulation, since it is very flexible and well controlled However, it
increases the area and complexity of the circuit, leading to high power consumption.
15
CONCLUSION
synthesizer has better resolution. The integer-N PLL (phase-locked loop ) is a commonly
used building block of frequency synthesizers as employed in mobile communications ,but
needed extra hardware hence wideband Frequency synthesizer.
Nowadays, Analog Frequency synthesizer are avoided in communication system just
because of its temperature dependent. Open-loop modulation frequency synthesiser is which
presents low cost and low power features and fairly simple to implement. Thus ,every
Frequency synthesizer have advantages as well as disadvantages, depending on their
requirement , they have been implemented.
FUTURE SCOPE:
Frequency synthesizer requirements for future cellular radio systems i.e. on the
future third Generation (3G) requirements .Also very useful in cordless telephones,mobile
radios and other wireless products.It has enomorous scope in Tele communication.
REFERENCES:
1) A Design of Frequency Synthesizer Based on the PLL Method, HanLi,School of
Automation Engineering,Northeast Dianli University Jilin, p.r. China.
2) A Mixed Signal Frequency Synthesiser for Configurable,Communication Systems,P. Gray,
D.C. Hendry, R. Cambio, W.W.S. Ma,Department of Engineering University of Aberdeen,
Aberdeen AB24 3UE,UK
3) OPTICAL FREQUENCY SYNTHESISER ,D. M. MANDELBAUM,PO Box 645,
Eatontown, NJ 07724, USA
4) Design of a fractional phase locked-loop frequency synthesiser using a Motorola based
microcontroller,M.E. Rizkalla,H. Gundrum,H. Michel
17
18