I have tested the phase noise of PLL. the vco runs at 3.8GHz, and the probe is at the output of the divide-by-2.
the results show that there is a spur at frequency offset of 1MHz. the reference is 13MHz, and dividers are divide-by-2 and 8/9 divider.
I wonder how this spur comes? and also I noticed that the noise floor seems very high after frequency offset of 10M. it becomes flat rather than a slope.
why?
thank you.
If you observe an exact 1MHz spur and the reference is exact 13MHz you will have an periodicy of 13 reference cycles. That could only mean that your sigma-delta modulator does not generate good 8/9 divider sequences for the fractional division.
Is the 8/9 driven direct by sigma-delta at 32*13e6=416MHz or is there a swallow counter which is driven by the sigmal-delta at 13MHz?
If you can analyse the sigma-delta behaviour for the frequency setting where the spurs is you possible observe a digital limit cycle.