A 44 GHz 0.18μm CMOS Superharmonic Frequency Divider

This paper presents a low power 44 GHz 0.18 μm CMOS superharmonic frequency divider. The superharmonic locking technique is proposed to perform direct divide-by-four operation. The integrated circuit was implemented in the commercial 0.18 μm CMOS technology. Operated at 1.2 V, the frequency divider consumes only 1.8 mW of power. The measured locking range of the frequency divider is 200 MHz. By applying varactor tuning, the operating range of the divider can be extended to 2.14 GHz. The chip occupied 0.77 mm × 0.8 mm of silicon area including the testing pads.