Chip design of 10 GHz low phase noise and small chip area PLL

Abstract

This design describes one of the lowest phase noise an integer-N phase-locked loop (PLL) below 10 GHz offset region using and fabricated in TSMC 0.18-um CMOS technology. The proposed PLL with a complementary crossed-couple LC-tank voltage- controlled oscillator (VCO) and true single phase clock (TSPC) logic in the frequency divider achieves a tuning range of 1460 MHz from 9.6 to 11.06 GHz with a mixed provide of current mode logic (CML) and according an offset frequency of 1 MHz to obtain lower phase noise performance of -113.47 dBc/Hz from the carry frequency of 10.087 GHz. The locking time is smaller than 3.0 us as simulation. Sum of pads (bonding) and an on-chip third-order low-pass filter, thus makes the chip area occupies only 0.818×0.678 mm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> (0.555 mm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> ). The power consumption is 39 mW at a supply voltage of 1.8V.