Importance

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Abstract

A delay circuit is provided for use in a ring oscillator of a phase locked loop (PLL). The delay circuit includes a differential pair of NMOS transistors 102 and 103 with an NMOS transistor 101 providing the tail current for the differential pair. Complementary NMOS and PMOS load transistors 104,106 and 105, 107 provide loads for the differential transistor 102 and 103. Transistors 111-114 and 121-122 together with an amplifier 130 provide biasing for the delay device. The amplifier 130 has a non-inverting input set to V.sub.DD -V.sub.CLAMP. As configured, a constant output voltage swing from V.sub.DD to V.sub.DD -V.sub.CLAMP is provided at the outputs V.sub.OUT + and V.sub.OUT - of the delay device, independent of a control voltage V.sub.CTL used to set the tail current. The NMOS load transistor 104, as opposed to the PMOS transistor 4 in FIG. 1, does not contribute to the gate parasitic capacitance enabling a high operation speed without consumption of more supply current. A wide frequency tuning range of a ring oscillator using the delay circuit of FIG. 2 is provided because the operating frequency for a ring oscillator will be directly proportional to the tail current through transistor 101.

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First Claim