Abstract:
A design technology of the wideband mm-wave injection-locked frequency divider (ILFD) is proposed and based on the 40-nm CMOS technology, a relating chip is designed for verification. In order to solve the problem of the narrow locking range (LR) in conventional mm-wave ILFDs, the transformer-based high-order resonator is utilized to generate the rippled phase response, enlarging the LR efficiently; Additionally, for the propose of reducing the equivalent parasitic capacitance from the gate of differential pairs in mm-wave band, an inductive divider feedback technology is proposed, realizing the boost of oscillation frequency. Besides, the injection-locked conditions of phase and gain for a modified model are theoretically deduced and the enhancement of oscillation frequency is analyzed and verified by simulations. The layout is drawn and the parasitic parameters are extracted to acquire the post-simulation results which suggest a LR of 36.9% from 52.6~76.4 GHz under 0.8 V power supply while a LR of 45.1% from 50~79.1 GHz, consuming 2.9 mW achieving an FoM of 10.0 GHz/mW under 0.62 V supply voltage.