Phase Detector and Charge Pump Design

Justin Abbott

1.1 Setting up the DFT

The DFT simulation samples a waveform during steady state operation and uses the Discrete
Fourier Transform to calculate the frequency content of the sampled waveform. The results of
the transform are very sensitive to the accuracy of the simulation and the sampling points chosen
for the calculations. Thus DFTs which are not correctly set up often return misleading results.
A method for setting up the DFT analysis is outlined below.

Determine length of simulation

The transient simulation time is determined though the bin size selection and time required to
reach steady state operation. In this particular case, a tone 40MHz away from the 1.8GHz carrier
is of interest. A bin size of 1MHz should allow sufficient resolution for this measurement.

TDFTwindow =

1
Fbin

TDFTwindow =

1
1MHz

Where Twindow is the simulation time required for the DFT analysis

TDFTwindow = 1S
Cadence simulation time is determined according to the following equation
Tsimulation = TDFTwindow + Tsettle
Where Tsettle is the time takes the simulation to reach steady state.

Determine Number of Sample Points required by DFT

For this simulation the highest frequency of interest is 1.84GHz (1.8GHz + 40MHz). However,
the spectrum around this point is also of interest so 1.84GHz will be rounded up to 2GHz. From
this it is possible to determine the minimum number of sample points the DFT requires to obtain
the necessary frequency information from the waveform.

FDFT =

# pts
2T

where #pts minimum number of sample points required

# pts = FDFT 2T
# pts = (2GHz )( 2 1S )
# pts = 4000

Phase Detector and Charge Pump Design

Justin Abbott

The number of points are often specified as 2N. Letting N = 12 gives 212 = 4096, which is greater
than the calculated minimum number of sample points required.

Setting up the Simulation

During a simulation Cadence selects points to calculate based on the rate of change of the system
and then interpolates between points to create the output waveform. For the DFT this
interpolation results in approximations and loss of accuracy. To maintain this accuracy it is
possible to force the simulator to calculate the exact point the DFT function will sample. This
can be done by accessing the following menus
Trans (double click on the transient simulation)
options

Near the bottom of the options form there is a field called strobe period. Enter the equation
T/2N in this field. ie (1u/4096). Entering the equation preserves accuracy as opposed to entering
a rounded off number.

Changing the Accuracy

The accuracy of the simulation can be increased by changing the analog option
Simulation
Options Analog
resltol = 1e-3
vabstol = 1e-8
istab = 1e-12
The defaults listed above may allow for enough accuracy, but if not they can be made smaller at
the cost of increased simulation time.

Plotting the Output

The DFT function is accessible through the Cadence calculator. The start time should be set as a
multiple of the TDFTwindow to ensure that the DFT function uses the calculated points.
ie
Tsettle = 2.5S
TDFTwindow = 1S
DFT starting point = 3S
DFT ending point = 4S

Taking the 20Log of the DFT of the VCO output with no current mismatching returns the
following plot.

Phase Detector and Charge Pump Design

Justin Abbott

In this example the noise floor is quite low. If the noise floor seems high and/or the signals of
interest seem lower than expected or are not preset, it is possible that the resolution is to coarse.
This can be corrected by reducing the bin size and re-running the simulation.