Data Acquisition System in Silicon Carbide
Student: Alaina Sharp
Major Professor: Dr. Alan Mantooth
Research Area(s):
Microelectronics
Background/Relevance
- Silicon carbide is a substance that has been found to be useful for manufacturing products that are needed to perform at high temperatures.
- A phase – locked loop (PLL) is a control system where the phase of an output signal is related to the phase of an input signal.
Innovation
- Determine the characteristics of the noise of the PLL and the VCO in order to determine how the noise is effected when heat is applied, so that devices with a PLL can function at high temperatures.
Approach
- Measure VCO by disabling IBIAS and sweeping control from 0V – 15V.
- Measure the PLL as a whole by comparing a square wave input to the PLL output.
Key Results
- These results show that some noise comes from the VCO, but not all.
- Some noise was caused by the phase frequency detector, charge pump, resistors and capacitors.
Conclusions
- The VCO seems to work correctly although it does put off some noise.
- It is still unknown if it is the main cause of noise in the system due to lack of time to get sufficient data.
- The PLL is made up of many components: the phase frequency detector, the charge pump, the VCO, capacitors and resistors, so there are many different places that the noise could come from.