Excellent sensitivity 64.8‐GHz CMOS injection‐locked frequency divider with 10.2‐GHz locking range

Abstract

AbstractA low‐power and wide‐locking‐range 64.8‐GHz injection‐locked frequency‐divider (ILFD) using standard 0.13 μm CMOS technology is reported. To enhance the locking range, a shunt inductor was introduced in the source node of the cross‐coupled transistor pair to maximize the equivalent load impedance of the tail transistor, i.e., to maximize the internal power, over the frequency band of interest. In addition, the inductors and capacitors of the LC‐tank were implemented by low‐Q micro‐stripline inductors and high‐Q varactors, respectively, to further improve the locking range of the ILFD. The result shows that a wide locking‐range of 10.2 GHz (from 54.6 GHz to 64.8 GHz (17%)), covering the 57–64‐GHz ultra‐wideband (UWB) set aside by FCC of USA, was achieved. The ILFD can be operated at an input power of −60 dBm. To the authors' knowledge, this is the best input sensitivity ever reported for a 60‐GHz‐band CMOS divider. The power consumption of the ILFD was only 3.39 mW from a 1 V power supply. The chip area was only 0.9 × 0.73 mm2 excluding the test pads. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 52: 518–523, 2010; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.24970