Self-aligned clock recovery circuit with proportional phase detector

The present invention relates generally to clock recovery circuitry and digital data regeneration. A self-aligned clock recovery circuit for synchronizing a local clock with an input data signal includes a sampling type phase detector for generating an output signal based on the phase difference between the local clock and the data signal timing. The phase detector obtains samples of consecutive data symbols at sampling times corresponding to transitions of the local clock, and obtains a data crossover sample at a sampling instant in between those of the consecutive data symbol samples. A phase shifter is employed to phase shift the local clock by an amount corresponding to a time varying modulation signal so as to obtain each data crossover sample at a variable sampling instant relative to the associated consecutive symbol samples. Logic circuitry determines whether the local clock appears to be early or late based on a comparison of the logic levels of the symbol samples and the associated data crossover sample, and provides a corresponding output signal through a filter to the local clock to adjust the clock accordingly. Since the relative sampling instants of successive data crossover samples are varied with time, the phase detector output signal amplitude is substantially proportional to the amount of phase error between the local clock and the symbol timing, thereby improving jitter properties of the clock recovery circuit.