Abstract: It has been shown that charge pumps (CPs) dominate single-event transient (SET) responses of phase-locked loops (PLLs). Using a pulse to represent a single event hit on CPs, the SET analysis model is established and the characteristics of SET generation and propagation in PLLs are revealed. An analysis of single event transients in PLLs demonstrates that the settling time of the voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs) control voltage after a single event strike is strongly dependent on the peak control voltage deviation, the SET pulse width, and the settling time constant. And the peak control voltage disturbance decreases with the SET strength or the filter resistance. Furthermore, the analysis in the proposed PLL model is confirmed by simulation results using MATLAB and HSPICE, respectively.

Key words: single event transient,  charge pump,  phase-locked loop