Desynchronization crisis induced intermittency in a master-slave PLL configuration

The experimental study of intermittency in the phase error signal, in a PLL master-slave configuration, is reported. Both master and slave phase-locked loop topologies are implemented by well known commercial PLLs, directly coupled to one another. The chaotic phenomenon appears in the limit of the operating range of a widely known and used configuration of two PLLs, resulting in a loss of synchronization between the two output frequencies. This intermittent behavior is induced by a crisis, between two attractors in the corresponding phase-space.