A wide-locking range ÷3 injection-locked frequency divider using concurrent injection mechanisms

Abstract

A new wide locking range divide-by-3 injection-locked frequency divider (ILFD) using a standard 0.18 μm CMOS process is presented. The ILFD uses two concurrent injection mechanisms with two independent push---push circuits to extend the locking range. It is realized with a cross-coupled n-core MOS LC-tank oscillator. The core power consumption of the ILFD core is 11.496 mW. The divider's free-running oscillation frequency is tunable from 4.32 to 3.78 GHz by tuning the varactor's control bias, and at the incident power of 0 dBm the maximum locking range is 3 GHz (25 %), from the incident frequency 10.5 to 13.5 GHz. The operation range is 3.6 GHz (30.76 %), from 9.9 to 13.5 GHz.