Robert Lacoste's The Darker Side

Chapter 10 Are You Locked? A PLL Primer

Note: This chapter is an improved reprint of the article “The darker side: Are you locked? A PLL primer,” Circuit Cellar, no. 209, December 2007.

In this chapter, I will dig into one of the most useful electronics building blocks, the phase-locked loop, nicknamed PLL. I don’t know why, but a significant number of electrical engineers are frightened when someone pronounces this acronym. This may be because PLLs are sometimes presented in textbooks through their mathematical properties rather than through their silicon side. That is a shame because PLLs are actually quite simple and they are definitely useful! Let’s try to prove it.

In this chapter, I will dig into one of the most useful electronics building ...