Frequency tracking and acquisition with a four-quadrant arctan phase detector based digital phase locked loop

This paper discusses the performance of tracking and acquiring a single frequency sinusoid with a four-quadrant phase detector (PD) based digital phase locked loop (DPLL). Under tracking we analyse the open loop steady state phase error distribution of the DPLL at the output of the PD and the output phase noise. Acquisition is treated as a complete linear process under noise free conditions and the performance degradation is studied using computer experiments.