Fractional Digital Regenerative Frequency Dividers

ABSTRACT This paper describes the topology and operation of a new family of asynchronous frequency dividers called fractional digital regenerative frequency dividers. The operation is explained using a digital approach in the time domain compared to the more classical analogue approach in the frequency domain. A fractional behaviour is intrinsic to this topology without the mandatory need of an external modulator. Integer ratios can also be easily obtained, for example to serve as multi‐modulus dividers when required. Starting with the elementary version of this kind of divider, a generalization is made with repeated cell patterns in the closed loop for finer control of the fractional ratio. Some measurements on an FPGA‐based implementation are provided to validate the division ratio of the elementary version as well as an example of a more complex configuration.