Abstract: In a typical phase-locked loop oscillator circuit including a voltage controlled oscillator and a reference frequency source, from each of which a signal is derived and the phases of these two signals are compared in a phase detector, the output of which is applied through a loop filter to a frequency modulation input of the voltage controlled oscillator, so that the frequency of the voltage controlled oscillator is precisely controlled by the reference frequency; an improvement which comprises a maximum permitted phase error between the two inputs to the phase detector, and a phase error corrector circuit which, in response to the presence of a maximum permitted phase error, will shift the phase of one of the two signals applied to the phase detector relative to the source of that signal, such as to hold the phase error into the phase detector within the permitted maximum.

Abstract: In a typical phase-locked loop oscillator circuit including a voltage controlled oscillator and a reference frequency source, from each of which a signal is derived and the phases of these two signals are compared in a phase detector, the output of which is applied through a loop filter to a frequency modulation input of the voltage controlled oscillator, so that the frequency of the voltage controlled oscillator is precisely controlled by the reference frequency; an improvement which comprises a maximum phase error detector which determines a maximum permitted phase error between the two inputs to the phase detector, and a phase error corrector circuit which, in response to the presence of a maximum permitted phase error, will shift the phase of one of the two signals applied to the phase detector relative to the source of that signal, such as to hold the phase error into the phase detector within the permitted maximum.