Patent attributes
A circuit for receiving an input signal and generating an output signal, the input signal having a first frequency, the output signal having a second frequency. The circuit comprises a forward branch for generating the output signal and a return branch for feeding back the output signal. The return branch comprises a frequency divider for receiving the output signal, for dividing the frequency of the output signal by a factor, and for outputting a modified output signal. The forward branch comprises a detector for comparing the input signal and the modified output signal and outputting a comparison signal indicative of the comparison; a word-length reduction circuit for reducing the number of bits of the comparison signal, thereby generating a reduced-length comparison signal; a digital-to-analog converter for converting the reduced-length comparison signal to analog, thereby generating an analog signal; and an oscillator, controlled by said analog signal. By reducing the word length of the input to the digital-to-analog converter, the digital-to-analog converter may be greatly simplified.