V.А. Sergeev - Dr.Sc. (Eng.), Associate Professor, Director, Ulyanovsk Branch of the Kotel-nikov Institute of Radioengineering and Electronics of Russian Academy of Sciences; Head of Basic Chair «Radio Engineering, Opto-and Nanoelectronics», Ulyanovsk State Technical University in Kotel-nikov UFIRE RAS Ya.G. Tetenkin - Leading Engineer, Ulyanovsk Branch of the Kotel-nikov Institute of Radioengineering and Electronics of Russian Academy of Sciences; Competitor, Basic Chair «Radio Engineering, Opto-and Nanoelectronics», Ulyanovsk State Technical University in Kotel-nikov UFIRE RAS. E-mail: ufire@mv.ru

The principles and basic technical characteristics of ring oscillators have been described. The expression for the frequency of oscillation of a complementary metal oxide semiconductor delay cell based conventional ring oscillator is presented and propagation delay of the delay stages is calculated. The limitations of a conventional ring oscillator have been studied and a few techniques to overcome these limitations have been mentioned. In this context, some modified structures of ring oscillators such as negative skewed delay ring oscillators, multi feedback ring oscillators and coupled ring oscillators are described for high frequency oscillation. The effect of noise sources on the output of ring oscillators has also been studied. Some potential applications of such ring oscillator based on its voltage tuning characteristics and multiphase outputs are also mentioned.

 

1. Song S. - J., Park S.M., Yoo H. - J. A 4-Gb/s CMOS clock and data recovery circuit using 1/8-rate clock technique // IEEE J. Solid State Circuits. 2003. V. 38. № 7. P. 1213-1219.
2. Hwangand Y.S., Lin H.C. A new CMOS analog front end for RFID tags // IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron. 2009. V. 56. № 7. P. 2299-2307.
3. Vijayaraghavan R., Islam S.K., Haider M.R., Zuo L. Wideband injection-locked frequency divider based on a process and temperature compensated ring oscillator // IET Circuits, Devices Syst. 2009. V. 3. № 5. P. 259-267.
4. Sundaresan K., Allen P.E ., Ayazi F. Process and temperature compensation in a 7-MHz CMOS clock oscillator // IEEE J. Solid State Circuits. 2006. V. 41. № 2.P. 433-442.
5. Kim J., Jang T.K., Yoon Y.G., Cho S.H. Analysis and design of voltage-controlled oscillator based analog-to-digital converter // IEEE Trans. Circuits Syst. 2010. V. 57, № 1. P. 18-30.
6. Avaev N.A., Naumov JU.E., Frolkin V.T.Osnovy mikroehlektroniki: Ucheb. posobie dlja vuzov. M.: Radio i svjaz. 1991.
7. Marcio B.M., Marcio C.S., Carlos G.-M. Analysis and Design of Ultra-Low-Voltage Inductive Ring Oscillators for Energy-Harvesting Applications. Instituto Federal Sul-Rio-Grandense. Brazil. 2013.
8. Sugano T., Ikoma T., Takehisi E. Vvedenie v mikroehlektroniku / Per. s jap. M.: Mir. 1988.
9. Lee S.J., Kim B., Lee K. A novel high-speed ring oscillator for multiphase clock generation using negative skewed delay scheme // IEEE J. Solid-state Circuits. V. 32. № 2. Feb. 1997.
10. Jeong D., Chai S., Sing W., Cho G. CMOS current controlled oscillators using multiple feed-back loop ring architectures // ISSCC Dig. Tech. Papers. 1997. P. 386-387.
11. Rezayee A., Martin K. A three-stage coupled ring oscillator with quadrature outputs // IEEE. ISCAS 1.2001. P. 484-487.
12. Herzel F., Razavi B. A Study of Oscillator Jitter Due to Supply and Substrate Noise // IEEE Trans. Circuits and Syst. II. Analog Digit Signal Process. 46 (1999). 56.
13. Gardiner C.W.Handbook of Stochastic Methods. Berlin: Springer-Verlag. 1983.
14. McNeill J. Jitter in ring oscillators // IEEE J. Solid-State Circuits. June 1997. V. 32. P. 870-879.
15. Hajimiri A., Lee T.H. A general theory of phase noise in electrical oscillators // IEEE J. Solid-State Circuits. Feb. 1998. V. 33. P. 179-194,
16. Hajimiri A., Lee T.H. The Design of Low Noise Oscillators. Boston: KluwerAcademicPublishers. 1999.
17. ZHalud V., Kuleshov V.N. SHumy v poluprovodnikovykh ustrojjstvakh / Pod obshhejj red. A.K. Naryshkina. Sovmestnoe sovetsko-cheshskoe izdanie. M.: Sov. radio. 1977.
18. Abidi A.A.High-frequency noise measurements of FET-s with small dimensions // IEEE Trans. Electron Devices.Nov. 1986. V. ED-33. P. 1801-1805.
19. Mandal M.K., Sarkar B.C. Ring oscillator-based direct digital frequency synthesizer with improved spectral purity // Int J. Electron. 93 (2006) 29.
20. Petrie C.A.An Integrated Random Bit Generator for Applications in Cryptography / Ph.D. Thesis. Georgia Institute of Technology. Nov. 1997.
21. Datta B, Burleson W. Low-power and robust on-chip thermal sensing using differential ring oscillators / 50th Midwest Symposium on Circuits and Systems. 2007. 5(8): 29.
22. Bota S.A., Rosales M., Rossello J.L. et al.Smart temperature sensor for thermal testing of cell-based ICs // Proceedings of Design, Automation and Test in Europe. 2005. 1(7): 464.