PSS and Pnoise analysis in cadence for an injection-Locked VCO

[MaryamHosseini]

Hi everyone
I am designing a first harmonic injection locked VCO oscillating on 2.4GHz. To calculate PN, I ran PSS and PNOISE analysis in cadence, but there was an error "V0 is a periodic input signal, which is inconsistent with autonomous circuits" because of the existence of a periodic input voltage with the frequency of 100MHz. After setting PSS simulation according to beat freq.=100MHz, tstab=40ns, number of harmonics=30, not checking the oscillator button and PNOISE simulation according to sweeptype= default, the phase noise result is +30dBc/Hz at very low offset (10KHz) frequencies becoming flat for higher frequencies. could you please guide me with this problem? am I doing sth wrong?

 

[BigBoss]

I believe you're seeing the first harmonic's Phase Noise but it should be 24^th Harmonic's.
Did you do that ?

 

[MaryamHosseini]

I believe you're seeing the first harmonic's Phase Noise but it should be 24^th Harmonic's.
Did you do that ?

I tried this one by setting the sweeptype in pnoise analysis to relative and relative harmonic to 24. The result was just a flat response rising for higher offset frequencies(the blue diagram)! I do not know if the whole settings of PSS and PNOISE like choosing the engine or beat frequency are right.

--- Updated Oct 3, 2021 ---

I tried this one by setting the sweeptype in pnoise analysis to relative and relative harmonic to 24. The result was just a flat response rising for higher offset frequencies(the blue diagram)! I do not know if the whole settings of PSS and PNOISE like choosing the engine or beat frequency are right.

I tried different modes to see why I get positive phase noise, and it seems checking oscillator in PSS or having the same beat frequency as the frequency of output is important. which I can not have either of them in injection locked VCO!!!!

 

[AMS012]

Phase noise around 100MHz or 2.4GHz should not be different if the pss is done with a sub harmonic beat frequency, as phase noise is a sampled noise.

I guess something else is going wrong. Why do you have 100MHz tone? You are saying it is a first harmonic ILO. Do you mean to say you are using 100MHz to lock the VCO to 2.4GHz? It is impossible to do a 24th harmonic locking unless it is a proper PLL with divider. More info would be helpful.

 

[MaryamHosseini]

Phase noise around 100MHz or around 2.4GHz should not be different, as he is giving 100MHz as the pss beat frequency and the phase noise is a sampled noise spectral density.
I guess something else is going wrong. Why do you have 100MHz tone? You are saying it is a first harmonic ILO.

The injected signal has the same frequency as the output has, but it is not a clean signal. So every 24 period, I replace the zero crossing of the unjected signal with the zero crossing of a clean reference to lower the jitter. In this case I have a reference with frequency of 100MHz.
(I need to inject that "not clean" signal, because it creats a topology that gives a better start up condition)

 

[AMS012]

Phase noise around 100MHz or 2.4GHz should not be different if the pss is done with a sub harmonic beat frequency, as phase noise is a sampled noise.

I guess something else is going wrong. Why do you have 100MHz tone? You are saying it is a first harmonic ILO. Do you mean to say you are using 100MHz to lock the VCO to 2.4GHz? It is impossible to do a 24th harmonic locking unless it is a proper PLL with divider. More info would be helpful.

I think I was wrong when I said the phase noise around 100MHz and 2.4GHz is not different.

I guess in your case, some sort of aliasing of the noise must be happening when you measure the noise, which is artificially increasing the floor, since you are using a sub harmonic best frequency.

 

[MaryamHosseini]

I think I was wrong when I said the phase noise around 100MHz and 2.4GHz is not different.

I guess in your case, some sort of aliasing of the noise must be happening when you measure the noise, which is artificially increasing the floor, since you are using a sub harmonic best frequency.

But according to the simulations, I can see that by changing the settings in pss and pnoise, the PN varies. I believe that the circuit has a good phase noise response but I can not find the right settings.