Dual-modulus Prescaler - Example

Example

Today, most dual-modulus prescalers exist inside of PLL chips, making it impossible to probe actual signals during operation. The first dual-modulus prescalers were discrete ECL devices, separate from the PLL chips. Here is an example of a dual-modulus prescaler in use. This circuit happens to use a Motorola MC145158 with a Fujitsu MB-501 dual-modulus prescaler operating in the 128/129 mode. The PLL is locked at 917.94 MHz (f_o) with a channel spacing frequency of 30 kHz (f_r). The total integer count therefore is 30,598. Dividing this by 128 (M) yields a quotient of 239 with a remainder of 6, N and A respectively. The result of this frequency choice is that the prescaler spends most of its time counting at 128, and just a brief period at 129.

This is shown by the upper purple trace, the modulus control, A, counter output. These two screen captures differ only in the horizontal scale. The lower, yellow trace is the N counter output whose frequency corresponds to the channel spacing frequency of 30 kHz. The green trace is the output from the dual-modulus prescaler, which happens to correspond to 7.1714 MHz in the case that the prescaler is at 128 and 7.1158 when it is at 129. It is plainly obvious that the modulus control is low for precisely 6 cycles of the prescaler output. What is not obvious is the fact that the frequency changes by less than one percent between the two states of the modulus control. There will be cases where A = 0, resulting in the dual-modulus prescaler counting only by 128. This would happen at 906.24, 910.08, 913.92, 917.76, 921.60 MHz and so on.