Silicon Laboratories Inc.
Spur mitigation for pulse output drivers in radio frequency (RF) devices

Abstract:

Systems and methods are disclosed for spur mitigation for pulse signal drivers in radio frequency (RF) devices. An RF integrated circuit includes RF circuitry and analog-to-digital (ADC) circuitry. The RF circuitry operates using a local oscillator (LO) clock to receive and/or transmit RF signals, and the ADC circuitry samples one or more analog input signals and has internal timing based upon a raw digital clock. A retime circuit receives the raw digital clock and the LO clock and has a retimed clock as an output. The retimed clock represents the raw digital clock retimed with the LO clock. While other digital circuitry is timed using the raw digital clock, one or more drivers are timed by the retimed clock and provide pulse output signals to output pads. Having the drivers timed with the retimed clock and other digital circuitry timed with the raw digital clock improves overall performance.