DSP-based oscillators boast up to four channels

Silicon Laboratories has entered the frequency control market with the Si530 and Si550 families of oscillators and voltage-controlled oscillators for applications up to 1.4GHz.

Silicon Laboratories has entered the frequency control market with the Si530 and Si550 families of oscillators (XOs) and voltage-controlled oscillators (VCXOs) for applications up to 1.4GHz.

These product families include the industry's first quad-frequency XO and VCXO devices.

Leveraging the company's proven DSPLL technology, both the Si550 and Si530 families provide the industry's shortest lead times, highest reliability and best performance, making them ideal for applications such as networking equipment, basestations, test and measurement equipment, storage area networks and video systems.

Silicon Laboratories invented the patented DSPLL approach to simplify the clock multiplication and jitter attenuation circuitry required in high-speed telecommunication applications.

This technology is now the standard for replacing multiple discrete phase-locked-loop (PLL) components with a single IC that integrates digital signal processing (DSP) circuitry and an ultra-low-jitter voltage-controlled oscillator.

With optimised DSPLL technology, Silicon Laboratories is able to move frequency control and tuning from a complex resonator to a single CMOS IC, enabling the Si530 and Si550 families to deliver total frequency stability over time and temperature that is more than two times better than traditional high-frequency, low-jitter oscillators.

DSPLL-based frequency tuning also enables up to a tenfold improvement in initial frequency accuracy when compared with designs based on traditional high-frequency SAW or crystal resonators.

"Silicon Laboratories' market-leading jitter performance challenged our best jitter measurement test system", said Amir Aghdaei, Vice President of Agilent's Worldwide System Solutions Division.

"We developed the JS-500 with very low intrinsic noise, great clock rate flexibility and true continuous peak-to-peak measurements specifically to help Silicon Laboratories verify their DSPLL-based products' unmatched jitter performance metrics".

A new class of XO and VCXO devices, the Si530 and Si550 families leverage the frequency synthesis capability of a mixed-signal IC to eliminate complex materials processing steps required to frequency tune traditional SAW and crystal-based implementations.

This simplifies the manufacturing process and significantly reduces traditional lead-times from eight weeks to only one week.

"Traditionally, PLL technology has not met the jitter and phase noise requirements for clocking networking and telecommunications applications", said Scott Smyser, Director and Principal Analyst of iSuppli Corp.

"A high performance, low-noise PLL brings increased flexibility, performance and reliability to designers that was not previously available from high frequency oscillator technology".

Both XO and VCXO product families support operation over a frequency range from 10MHz to 1.4GHz with less than 0.3ps RMS jitter.

The Si530 and Si550 families also offer significantly improved control voltage linearity while providing a wide selection of voltage gain and pull range options giving more flexibility to a designer when choosing the best device for the application.

"Today, high-frequency, low-jitter oscillators are based on complex resonator technology that forces system manufacturers to endure long, unpredictable lead times and incur significant costs in qualifying and monitoring the reliability of these devices", said Brad Fluke, Vice President of Silicon Laboratories.

"We are excited about applying our proven DSPLL technology to the long-standing problems associated with the high-frequency oscillator market while also introducing new levels of functionality".

The Si530 and Si550 devices are available in an industry standard, RoHS-compliant, 7 x 5mm surface mount package with support of all common output formats: PECL, LVDS, CMOS and CML.

The Si530 and Si550 are sampling now with production scheduled for the fourth quarter.

Depending on the feature set, the pricing for the Si530 and Si550 families ranges from $6.05 to $88.95 in quantities of 1000.

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