High Current Matching over Full-Swing and Low-Glitch Charge Pump Circuit for PLLs

Abstract

A high current matching over full-swing and low-glitch charge pump (CP) circuit is proposed. The current of the CP is split into two identical branches having one-half the original current. The two branches are connected in source-coupled structure, and a two-stage amplifier is used to regulate the common-source voltage for the minimum current mismatch. The proposed CP is designed in TSMC 0.18µm CMOS technology with a power supply of 1.8 V. SpectreRF based simulation results show the mismatch between the current source and the current sink is less than 0.1% while the current is 40 µA and output swing is 1.32 V ranging from 0.2 V to 1.52 V. Moreover, the transient output current presents nearly no glitches. The simulation results verify the usage of the CP in PLLs with the maximum tuning range from the voltage-controlled oscillator, as well as the low power supply applications.