New concept for pulse frequency synthesis

This paper presents a novel solution for pulse frequency synthesis, capable of combining high speed of response with low pulse-position jitter, and thus well suited for industrial applications. The frequency selection is performed by the accumulator, which produces irregular pulse sequences of frequency proportional to the input number. The internal state of the accumulator conveys the information about the deviation of each output pulse from its ideal position. This information is used in generating a correction signal applied to a PLL-based pulse-position corrector. The phase detector in the PLL operates at the VCO frequency, meaning that the loop bandwidth is not limited as in the case of conventional PLL synthesizers with frequency-divider feedback. The operating principle of the proposed synthesizer has been verified experimentally.