A Silicon-Based 0.3 THz Frequency Synthesizer With Wide Locking Range

Author

Pei-Yuan Chiang ; Zheng Wang ; Momeni, Omeed ; Heydari, Payam

Author_Institution

Univ. of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA

Volume

49

Issue

12

fYear

2014

fDate

Dec. 2014

Firstpage

2951

Lastpage

2963

Abstract

A 300 GHz frequency synthesizer incorporating a triple-push VCO with Colpitts-based active varactor (CAV) and a divider with three-phase injection is introduced. The CAV provides frequency tunability, enhances harmonic power, and buffers/injects the VCO fundamental signal from/to the divider. The locking range of the divider is vastly improved due to the fact that the three-phase injection introduces larger allowable phase change and injection power into the divider loop. Implemented in 90 nm SiGe BiCMOS, the synthesizer achieves a phase-noise of -77.8 dBc/Hz (-82.5 dBc/Hz) at 100 kHz (1 MHz) offset with a crystal reference, and an overall locking range of 280.32-303.36 GHz (7.9%).

Keywords

BiCMOS analogue integrated circuits; elemental semiconductors; frequency dividers; frequency synthesizers; millimetre wave frequency convertors; phase noise; silicon; varactors; voltage-controlled oscillators; BiCMOS; Colpitts-based active varactor; SiGe; crystal reference; divider loop; frequency 0.3 THz; frequency tunability; harmonic power; injection power; phase change; phase-noise; silicon-based frequency synthesizer; size 90 nm; three-phase injection; triple-push VCO; wide locking range; Frequency synthesizers; Harmonic analysis; Power system harmonics; Transistors; Tuning; Voltage-controlled oscillators; Active varactor; Colpitts; frequency generation; frequency synthesizer; injection-locked divider; multi-phase injection; phase-locked loop (PLL); ring oscillator; terahertz; triple-push VCO;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Solid-State Circuits, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9200

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JSSC.2014.2360385

Filename

6932502