Modular Clock Conditioning for Multi-Protocol Synchronization
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing communication devices operating in MIMO systems face challenges in maintaining synchronization between clock signals provided to multiple transmit chains, leading to increased development time, cost, and chip real estate occupation due to the need for separate clock conditioning circuits for different wireless protocols.
Innovation Solution
A modular clock conditioning circuit design that allows reconfiguration and reuse, featuring multiple operating modes for monitoring and conditioning clock signals, sharing common elements to support various wireless protocols with reduced implementation costs and development cycles.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If separate clock conditioning circuits are used for different wireless protocols, then timing synchronization between clock signals is improved, but chip real estate occupation increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a universal clock conditioning circuit that can operate in multiple modes (monitoring mode and improving mode) to support different wireless protocols. The same physical circuit is reconfigured through control signals to provide protocol-specific clock conditioning, eliminating the need for separate dedicated circuits for each protocol while maintaining timing synchronization requirements.
2Adaptability or versatility
If separate clock conditioning circuits are used for different wireless protocols, then protocol-specific clock conditioning is improved, but development time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The circuit design uses a single versatile clock conditioning circuit that can be configured through control signals to support multiple wireless protocols. This eliminates the need to design, verify, and bring multiple separate circuits through development cycles, significantly reducing development time while maintaining protocol-specific conditioning capabilities.
Solution Approach 2:
The clock conditioning circuit dynamically reconfigures its operation mode based on control signals that indicate which wireless protocol is currently active. The circuit can switch between monitoring mode and improving mode, and adjust its conditioning parameters dynamically to match the requirements of different protocols, providing adaptability without requiring separate static circuits for each protocol.
3Adaptability or versatility
If separate clock conditioning circuits are used for different wireless protocols, then clock signal customization is improved, but implementation cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs a single manufacturable clock conditioning circuit design that can be customized for different protocols through software control rather than hardware variation. This approach allows full clock signal customization capability while incurring only one instance of circuit implementation cost, avoiding the multiplicative cost increase that would result from manufacturing separate circuits for each protocol.
Data Source
AI summary
Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide a clock conditioning circuit configurable with multiple operating modes to generate customized clock signals for a plurality of processing nodes. The clock conditioning circuit may include one or more first circuits, each configurable to monitor one or more parameters indicative of a condition of a first clock signal and to generate one or more control signals based on the monitoring and one or more second circuits, each configurable to generate a second clock signal by conditioning the first clock signal based on at least one of the one or more control signals generated by at least one of the one or more first circuits.