A 2.28 mW 80.8 GHz CMOS divide-by-4 DILFD with 18.24% locking range using tunable LC source-degeneration

Abstract

A 80.8-GHz CMOS divide-by-4 direct injection-locked frequency divider (DILFD4) using tunable LC source-degeneration (TLCSD) for operation frequency and locking-range enhancement is demonstrated. The TLCSD is made by adding two tunable LC tanks, where varactors are used as the required capacitors, to the source terminals of the cross-coupled transistor pair of the DILFD4. Compared with the traditional cross-coupled transistor pair, the proposed one significantly decreases the equivalent parallel capacitance (Ceq). This in turn results in the increase of both the operation frequency and locking-range of the DILFD4. The DILFD4 dissipated 2.28 mW from a 1.2 V power supply, and achieved a total locking range of 18.24% (i.e. 13.5 GHz, from 67.28 GHz to 80.78 GHz). Furthermore, the DILFD4 achieved excellent output phase-noise of -137.14. dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset when the input signal was locked at 68.116 GHz. The chip area was only 1.025×0.765 mm excluding the test pads.