GEORGE ALEXANDER VON EDWINS
Pilots at Pepper St, Melbourne, FL

6603362, Aug 5, 2003

Mar 14, 2000

09/524992

George E. Von Dolteren, Jr. - Palm Bay FL

Intersil Americas Inc. - Irvine CA

H03L 700

331 25, 331 12, 331 16, 375376, 327107, 327159, 327156

A reduced phase noise multiplication, digitally controlled frequency synthesizer employs a subsampling digitizer to downconvert (perform ‘constructive aliasing’ of) the synthesizers output frequency to baseband for precision tuning of the synthesizers output frequency in a digitally controlled phase locked loop. The use of a digitally controlled phase locked loop allows the stepsize of the synthesizer output frequency to be controlled in very small (e. g. , sub-Hertz) increments. Since the phase locked loop uses all digital components for tuning control, no additional frequency division by the loop is required. This means that only the value of the subharmonic ratio ‘n’ of the subsampling clock to the analog-to-digital converter will determine multiplicative phase noise error.

5861826, Jan 19, 1999

Jun 30, 1997

8/885273

Tzi-Hsiung Shu - Melbourne FL
George E. Von Dolteren - Palm Bay FL

Harris Corporation - Palm Bay FL

H03M 110

341120

The calibration method preferably comprises the steps of: driving the analog-to-digital converter (ADC) with at least one test signal; calibrating the driven ADC over a series of successive ADC calibrations; generating a series of successive ADC figure of merit measurements for respective successive ADC calibrations, the series of successive ADC figure of merit measurements defining at least a portion of a curve having a local minimum/maximum; and stopping calibrating at an ADC calibration corresponding to the local minimum/maximum of the curve defined by the series of successive ADC figure of merit measurements. The step of calibrating preferably comprises incrementally calibrating the ADC over the series of successive ADC calibrations. The method preferably further comprises the step of determining the local minimum/maximum of the curve. In particular, the step of determining preferably comprises fitting an equation to the series of ADC figure of merit measurements; and calculating the local minimum/maximum based upon the equation.