ZHCSHN9B February 2018 – February 2025 LMK05028
PRODUCTION DATA
PLL cascading can be used when the second PLL (either PLL1 or PLL2) must be precisely locked to the frequency of the first PLL. The internal VCO loopback configuration options are implemented identically on both PLL channels, allowing PLL2 to be cascaded after PLL1 or in the inverse configuration. The internal VCO loopback clock from the first PLL can drive the REF-DPLL input path or the TCXO-DPLL input path if the TCXO loopback enable control is set. The second PLL can have reference validation enabled to qualify the VCO loopback clock from the first PLL stage to verify that the second PLL stage has a stable and valid clock input from the first PLL stage before the stage acquires lock. The VCO loopback clock can be validated based on when the first PLL stage achieves frequency lock and/or phase lock on the REF-DPLL or frequency lock on the TCXO-DPLL. Once the VCO loopback clock is validated based on the enabled criteria, then the second PLL stage can begin to acquire lock. The VCO loopback dividers, loopback mux, and loopback reference validation options are programmable.
In the example shown in Figure 7-37, PLL2 is cascaded and locked to the internal VCO1 loopback clock of PLL1 through the two loopback dividers (fixed and programmable) and TCXO loopback muxes. PLL2 operates with a wide loop bandwidth to precisely track the DCO frequency adjustments applied to PLL1. This effectively applies DCO adjustments to both clock domains simultaneously, which is not possible if both loops are operating in parallel (not cascaded) with separate DCO controls.