Noise Properties of PLL Systems

This is a survey paper which begins by the derivation of the general PLL noise equation and by dividing the additive noises into the passband group and the stopband group. In the following paragraphs the behavior of all the major sources of additive noises is investigated and the practical numerical values of the respective power spectral densities are given. In the terminating sections, guidelines for minimizing the additive noises in PLL systems and PLL frequency synthesizers are emphasized, and finally, phase-noise power spectral densities of several actual PLL frequency synthesizers are plotted in the normalized form. The paper is accompanied by a copious bibliography.