DOEPFER A-196 PHASE LOCKED LOOP (PLL)

Module A-196 contains a so-called phase locked loop (PLL). The basic PLL system is shown in the sketch at the bottom of this page. A PLL consists of three parts: voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO), phase comparator (PC), and low-pass filter (LPF). All parts are normally connected to form a closed-loop frequency-feedback system.This is how a PLL works: The output of the internal VCO (linear CV control, rectangle output) is compared with an external signal (e.g. the rectangle output of a A-110 VCO) in the so-called phase comparator (PC). The output of the phase comparator is a digital signal (low/high/tristate) that indicates if the frequency resp. phase difference of the two input signals is negative, zero or positive. The output of the phase comparator is processed by a low pass filter (LPF) to generate a smooth voltage that is used to control the frequency of the internal VCO. The 3 units VCO, PC and LPF form a feedback loop that works like this: The control voltage (output of the LP