There are several potentially useful pages here. First, there is a page of PLL troubleshooting tips, based on questions that I've answered from the various on line forums that I've answered. Part of the PLL Design work includes an Excel spreadsheet that uses VBA and complex numbers in Excel to do a linear analysis of a charge pump PLL.
Another page here discusses some of the tools that I've found useful for RF Engineering. This covers books, web sites, magazines, and software that I use and can recommend. I've linked the book recommendations to Amazon, so if you find the information useful, I'd appreciate clicking through to buy the books.
02/08/2009. Cleaned out some older, obsolete pages.
11/30/2008. Started working on an on-line RF System Design document
01/01/2008. Updated my RF Book page to show covers in the Amazon links.
08/16/2007. Final update to my PLL design worksheet. I've also shelved the grGPS work. It seems that the Ettus Research receiver works just fine for receiving GPS. I'll leave the content up there for a while, but don't expect any updates.
05/10/2007. Added initial block diagram of a direct conversion/direct launch transceiver for WiMAX
04/24/2007. Started working on a WiMAX System design as an involved design example.
12/02/2006. Finished updating to PmWiki as a lightweight content management system. The setup was pretty straightforward, and pretty much just worked.
11/16/2006. Finished resistor noise and added closed loop phase noise to PllDesign.xls. It's up to V3 now. I'd appreciate any comments. As far as grGPS, I've build up a footprint for the Maxim 2471, and need to add it to the schematic.
10/10/06 I've just installed pmwiki here to make updating the site easier. I'm going to be the only one able to edit the wiki pages, but it will make my life easier. I've been working on the grGPS updates with the Max 2741. I've received sample parts from Maxim, and need to build a footprint in Eagle to update the schematic.
09/29/2006. Added resistor noise to PllDesign.xls. I need to go in and check the phase noise calculations for the VCO and Reference oscillator though. I've added a new page for this spreadsheet
09/26/2006. I requested some samples of the Max 2741 last week, and they arrived today. Now I need to build a part in Eagle and revisit my Schematic on the grGPS page.
I've also been working on writing an Excel spreadsheet that implements most of calculations in Dean Banerjee's PLL book from National. This is my first attempt to do complex number calculations in Excel, and it's pretty painful.
09/15/2006. I've been trading some emails with an FAE at Maxim. He recommended that I use the Max 2741 instead of the Max 2745 GPS receiver. One of the big advantages of the 2741 is that it uses a standard oscillator frequency. I ran into a real problem finding the 16/32 MHz oscillator that the Max 2745 uses, as it's a non-standard frequency. The 2741 uses an internal PLL to generate the LO for the receiver, and so I need an oscillator frequency that is a multiple of 200kHz, which is pretty straightforward to arrange. I've got some leftover 16.8 MHz parts which should work.