A 1-V 24-GHz 17.5-mW phase-locked loop in a 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS process

A 1-V 24-GHz 17.5-mW fully integrated phase-locked loop employing a transformer-feedback voltage-controlled oscillator and a stacked divide-by-2 frequency divider for low voltage and low power is presented. Implemented in a 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS process and operated at 24 GHz with a 1-V supply, the PLL measures in-band phase noise of -106.3 dBc at a frequency offset of 100 kHz and out-of-band phase noise of -119.1 dBc/Hz at a frequency offset of 10 MHz. The PLL dissipates 17.5 mW and occupies a core area of 0.55 mm/sup 2/.     

A fully integrated 1.5-V 5.5-GHz CMOS phase-locked loop

A 1.5-V 5.5-GHz fully integrated phase-locked loop (PLL) has been implemented in a 0.25-μm foundry digital CMOS process. From a 5.5-GHz carrier, the in-band phase noise can be as low as -88 dBc/Hz at a 40-kHz offset, while the phase noise for the free-running VCO is -116 dBc/Hz at an 1-MHz offset. The VCO core current is 4.6 mA. The prescaler is implemented using a variation of the source-coupled logic (SCL) structure to reduce the switching noise, and thus to reduce the PLL side-band spurs. At -18 dBm signal power measured off chip, the switching noise coupled through substrate and metal interconnect generates spurs with power levels less than -99 dBm when the loop is open. A new charge-pump circuit is developed to reduce the current glitch at the output node. By incorporating a voltage doubler, the voltage dynamic range at the charge-pump output and thus the VCO control voltage range is increased from 1.3 to 2.6 V with immeasurable phase noise and spurious level degradation to the PLL. When the loop is closed, the power levels of side-band spurs at the offset frequency equal to the ~43-MHz reference frequency are < -69 dBc. The total power consumption of the PLL including that for the output buffers is ~23 mW     

A 14-GHz 256/257 dual-modulus prescaler with secondary feedback and its application to a monolithic CMOS 10.4-GHz phase-locked loop

A 14-GHz 256/257 dual-modulus prescaler is implemented using secondary feedback in the synchronous 4/5 divider on a 0.18-/spl mu/m foundry CMOS process. The dual-modulus scheme utilizes a 4/5 synchronous counter which adopts a traditional MOS current mode logic clocked D flip-flop. The secondary feedback paths limit signal swing to achieve high-speed operation. The maximum operating frequency of the prescaler is 14 GHz at V/sub DD/=1.8 V. Utilizing the prescaler, a 10.4-GHz monolithic phase-locked loop (PLL) is demonstrated. The voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) operates between 9.7-10.4 GHz. The tuning range of the VCO is 690 MHz. The phase noise of the PLL and VCO at a 3-MHz offset with I/sub vco/=4.9 mA is -117 and -119 dBc/Hz, respectively. At the current consumption of I/sub vco/=8.1 mA, the phase noise is -122 and -122 dBc/Hz, respectively. The PLL output phase noise at a 50-kHz offset is -80 dBc/Hz. The PLL consumes /spl sim/31 mA at V/sub DD/=1.8 V.     

A 16-GHz Triple-Modulus Phase-Switching Prescaler and Its Application to a 15-GHz Frequency Synthesizer in 0.18-μm CMOS

A triple-modulus phase-switching prescaler for high- speed operations is presented in this paper. By reversing the switching orders between the eight 45deg-spaced signals generated by the 8 : 1 frequency divider, the maximum operating frequency of the prescaler is effectively enhanced. With the triple-modulus switching scheme, a wide frequency covering range is achieved. The proposed prescaler is implemented in a 0.18-mum CMOS process, demonstrating a maximum operating frequency of 16 GHz without additional peaking inductors for a compact chip size. Based on the high-speed prescaler, a fully integrated integer-N frequency synthesizer is realized. The synthesizer operates at an output frequency from 13.9 to 15.6 GHz, making it very attractive for wideband applications in Ku-band. At an output frequency of 14.4 GHz, the measured sideband power and phase noise at 1-MHz offset are -60 dBc and -103.8 dBc/Hz, respectively. The fabricated circuit occupies a chip area of 1 mm² and consumes a dc power of 70 mW from a 1.8-V supply voltage     

A 50-GHz Phase-Locked Loop in 0.13-μ m CMOS

A 50-GHz charge pump phase-locked loop (PLL) utilizing an LC-oscillator-based injection-locked frequency divider (ILFD) was fabricated in 0.13-mum logic CMOS process. The PLL can be locked from 45.9 to 50.5 GHz and output power level is around -10 dBm. The operating frequency range is increased by tracking the self-oscillation frequencies of the voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) and the frequency divider. The PLL including buffers consumes 57 mW from 1.5/0.8-V supplies. The phase noise at 50 kHz, 1 MHz, and 10 MHz offset from the carrier is -63.5, -72, and -99 dBc/Hz, respectively. The PLL also outputs second-order harmonics at frequencies between 91.8 and 101 GHz. The output frequency of 101 GHz is the highest for signals locked by a PLL fabricated using the silicon integrated circuits technology.     

A 2.6-GHz/5.2-GHz frequency synthesizer in 0.4-μm CMOStechnology

This paper describes the design of a CMOS frequency synthesizer targeting wireless local-area network applications in the 5-GHz range. Based on an integer-N architecture, the synthesizer produces a 5.2-GHz output as well as the quadrature phases of a 2.6-GHz carrier. Fabricated in a 0.4-μm digital CMOS technology, the circuit provides a channel spacing of 23.5 MHz at 5.2 GHz while exhibiting a phase noise of -115 dBc/Hz at 2.6 GHz and -100 dBc/Hz at 5.2 GHz (both at 10-MHz offset). The reference sidebands are at -53 dBc at 2.6 GHz, and the power dissipation from a 2.6-V supply is 47 mW     

A 2.4-GHz ring-oscillator-based CMOS frequency synthesizer with a fractional divider dual-PLL architecture

A 2.4-GHz frequency synthesizer was designed that uses a fractional divider to drive a dual-phase-locked-loop (PLL) structure, with both PLLs using only on-chip ring oscillators. The first-stage narrow-band PLL acts as a spur filter while the second-stage wide-band PLL suppresses VCO phase noise so that simultaneous suppression of phase noise and spur is achieved. A new low-power, low-noise, low-frequency ring oscillator is designed for this narrow-band PLL. The chip was designed in 0.35-/spl mu/m CMOS technology and achieves a phase noise of -97 dBc/Hz at 1-MHz offset and spurs of -55 dBc. The chip's output frequency varies from 2.4 to 2.5 GHz; the chip consumes 15 mA from a 3.3-V supply and occupies 3.7 mm/spl deg/.     

A 1.8-GHz Spur-Cancelled Fractional-N Frequency Synthesizer With LMS-Based DAC Gain Calibration

A 1.8-GHz wideband DeltaSigma fractional-N frequency synthesizer achieves the phase noise performance of an integer-N synthesizer using a spur-cancellation digital-to-analog converter (DAC). The DAC gain is adaptively calibrated with a least-mean-square (LMS) sign-sign correlation algorithm for better than 1% DAC and charge pump (CP) gain matching. The proposed synthesizer phase-locked loop (PLL) is demonstrated with a wide 400-kHz loop bandwidth while using a low 14.3-MHz reference clock, and offers a better phase noise and bandwidth tradeoff. Using an 8-bit gain-calibrated DAC, DeltaSigma-shaped divider ratio noise is suppressed by as much as 30 dB. The second-order DeltaSigma fractional-N PLL exhibits in-band and integrated phase noises of -98 dBc/Hz and 0.8deg. The chip, fabricated in 0.18-mum CMOS, occupies 2 mm², and consumes 29 mW at 1.8-V supply. The spur cancellation and correlation function consumes 30% additional power     

A 1.6-GHz CMOS PLL with on-chip loop filter

A 1.6-GHz phase locked loop (PLL) has been fabricated in a 0.6-μm CMOS technology. The PLL consists of an LC-tank circuit, divider, phase detector with charge pump, and an on-chip passive loop filter. When the oscillator is open loop, it exhibits -115 dBc/Hz phase noise at a 600-kHz offset from the carrier. The PLL occupies an active area of 1.6 mm² and dissipates 90 mW from a single 3-V supply     

A 1.8-GHz self-calibrated phase-locked loop with precise I/Qmatching

This paper describes a 1.8-GHz self-calibrated phase-locked loop (PLL) implemented in 0.35-μm CMOS technology. The PLL operates as an edge-combining type fractional-N frequency synthesizer using multiphase clock signals from a ring-type voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO). A self-calibration circuit in the PLL continuously adjusts delay mismatches among delay cells in the ring oscillator, eliminating the fractional spur commonly found in an edge-combing fractional divider due to the delay mismatches. With the calibration loop, the fractional spurs caused by the delay mismatches are reduced to -55 dBc, and the corresponding maximum phase offsets between the multiphase signals is less than 0.20. The frequency synthesizer PLL operates from 1.7 to 1.9 GHz and the closed-loop phase noise is -105 dBc/Hz at 100-kHz offset from the carrier. The overall circuit consumes 20 mA from a 3.0-V power supply     

An 18-mW 2.5-GHz/900-MHz BiCMOS dual frequency synthesizer with<10-Hz RF carrier resolution

A 2.5-GHz/900-MHz dual fractional-N/integer-N frequency synthesizer is implemented in 0.35-μm 25-GHz BiCMOS. A ΔΣ fractional-N synthesizer is employed for RF channels to have agile switching, low in-band noise, and fine frequency resolution. Implementing two synthesizers with an on-chip ΔΣ modulator in a small package is challenging since the modulator induces substantial digital noise. In this work, several design aspects regarding noise coupling are considered. The fractional-N synthesizer offers less than 10-Hz frequency resolution having the in-band noise contribution of -88 dBc/Hz for 2.47-GHz output frequency and -98 dBc/Hz for 1.15-GHz output frequency, both measured at 20-kHz offset frequency. The prototype dual synthesizer consumes 18 mW with 2.6-V supply     

An Integrated 5–2.5-GHz Direct-Injection Locked Quadrature LC VCO

This letter presents an integrated direct-injection locked quadrature voltage controlled oscillator (VCO), consisted of a 5-GHz VCO integrated with injection locked LC frequency dividers for low-power quadrature generation. The circuit is implemented using a standard 0.18-mum CMOS process. The differential VCO is a full PMOS Colpitts oscillator, and the frequency divider is performed by adding an injection nMOS between the differential outputs of complementary cross-coupled np-core LC VCO. The measurement results show that at the supply voltage of 1.8-V, the master 5-GHz VCO is tunable from 4.73 to 5.74GHz, and the slave 2.5-GHz VCO is tunable from 2.36 to 2.87GHz. The measured phase noise of master VCO is -118.2dBc/Hz while the locked quadrature output phase noise is -124.4dBc/Hz at 1-MHz offset frequency, which is 6.2dB lower than the master VCO. The core power consumptions are 7.8 and 8.7mW at master and slave VCOs, respectively     

A 6.3-9-GHz CMOS fast settling PLL for MB-OFDM UWB applications

A CMOS phase-locked loop (PLL) which synthesizes frequencies between 6.336 and 8.976 GHz in steps of 528 MHz and settles in approximately 150 ns is presented. The proposed PLL can be employed as a building block for a frequency synthesizer which generates a seven-band hopping carrier for multiband orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (MB-OFDM) ultrawideband (UWB) radio. To achieve fast loop settling, integer-N architecture that operates with 528-MHz reference frequency is implemented and a wideband active-loop filter is integrated. An improved phase-frequency detector (PFD) is proposed for faster loop settling. To reduce reference sidebands, a feedback circuit using replica bias is implemented in the charge pump. I/Q carriers are generated by two cross-coupled LC VCOs. The output current of the charge pump is controlled to compensate for the VCO gain nonlinearity and a programmable frequency divider (12/spl les/N/spl les/17) that reliably operates at 9 GHz is designed. Fabricated in 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS technology, the PLL consumes 32 mA from a 1.8-V supply and achieves phase noise of -109.6dBc/Hz at 1-MHz offset and spurs of -52 dBc.     

A 13.5-mW 5-GHz frequency synthesizer with dynamic-logic frequency divider

The adoption of dynamic dividers in CMOS phase-locked loops for multigigahertz applications allows to reduce the power consumption substantially without impairing the phase noise and the power supply sensitivity of the phase-locked loop (PLL). A 5-GHz frequency synthesizer integrated in a 0.25-/spl mu/m CMOS technology demonstrates a total power consumption of 13.5 mW. The frequency divider combines the conventional and the extended true-single-phase-clock logics. The oscillator employs a rail-to-rail topology in order to ensure a proper divider function. This PLL intended for wireless LAN applications can synthesize frequencies between 5.14 and 5.70 GHz in steps of 20 MHz. The reference spurs at 10-MHz offset are as low as -70 dBc and the phase noise is lower than -116 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz over the whole tuning range.     

A CMOS frequency synthesizer with an injection-locked frequencydivider for a 5-GHz wireless LAN receiver

A fully integrated 5-GHz phase-locked loop (PLL) based frequency synthesizer is designed in a 0.24 μm CMOS technology. The power consumption of the synthesizer is significantly reduced by using a tracking injection-locked frequency divider (ILFD) as the first frequency divider in the PLL feedback loop. On-chip spiral inductors with patterned ground shields are also optimized to reduce the VCO and ILFD power consumption and to maximize the locking range of the ILFD. The synthesizer consumes 25 mW of power of which only 3.8 mW is consumed by the VCO and the ILFD combined. The PLL has a bandwidth of 280 kHz and a phase noise of -101 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset frequency. The spurious sidebands at the center of adjacent channels are less than -54 dBc     

A 2-V, 1.8-GHz BJT phase-locked loop

This paper describes the design of a bipolar junction transistor phase-locked loop (PLL) for ΣΔ fractional-N frequency-synthesis applications. Implemented in a 0.8-μm BiCMOS technology, the PLL can operate up to 1.8 GHz while consuming 225 mW of power from a single -2-V supply. The entire LC-tuned negative-resistance variable-frequency oscillator is integrated on the same chip. A differential low-voltage current-mode logic circuit configuration is used in most of the PLL's functional blocks to minimize phase jitter and achieve low-voltage operation. The multimodulus frequency divider is designed to support multibit digital modulation. The new phase and frequency detector and loop filter contain only npn transistors and resistors and thus achieve excellent resolution in phase comparison. When phase locked to a 53.4-MHz reference clock, the measured phase noise of the 16-GHz output is -91 dBc/Hz at 10-kHz offset. The frequency switching time from 1.677 to 1.797 GHz is 150 μs. Die size is 4300×4000 μm², including the passive loop filter     

A 1.8-GHz CMOS low-phase-noise voltage-controlled oscillator withprescaler

The implementation of the two high-frequency building blocks for a low-phase-noise 1.8-GHz frequency-synthesizing PLL in a standard 0.7-μm CMOS process is discussed. The VCO uses on-chip bondwires, instead of spiral inductors, for low noise and low power. The design of these bondwire inductors is discussed in great detail. A general formula for the theoretical limit of the phase noise of LC-tuned oscillators is presented. The design of a special LC-tank allows a trade-off between noise and power. The realized VCO has a phase noise of -115 dBc/Hz at 200 kHz from the 1.8-GHz carrier and consumes 8 mA from a 3-V supply. The prescaler has a fixed division ratio of 128 and uses an enhanced ECL-alike high-frequency D-flipflop. Its power consumption is 28 mW     

A 5-GHz programmable frequency divider in 0.18-μM CMOS technology

A 5-GHz CMOS programmable frequency divider whose modulus can be varied from 2403 to 2480 for 2.4-GHz ZigBee applications is presented.The divider based on a dual-modulus prescaler (DMP) and pulse-swallow counter is designed to reduce power consumption and chip area.Implemented in the 0.18-μm mixed-signal CMOS process,the divider operates over a wide range of 1-7.4 GHz with an input signal of 7.5 dBm; the programmable divider output phase noise is -125.3 dBc/Hz at an offset of 100 kHz.The core circuit without test buffer consumes 4.3 mA current from a 1.8 V power supply and occupies a chip area of approximately 0.015 mm2.The experimental results indicate that the programmable divider works well for its application in frequency synthesizers.     

An Agile VCO Frequency Calibration Technique for a 10-GHz CMOS PLL

This paper reports an agile VCO frequency calibration technique and its application on a 10-GHz CMOS integer-N phase-locked loop. The proposed calibration method accomplishes efficient search for an optimum VCO discrete tuning curve among a group of frequency sub-bands. The agility is attributed to a proposed frequency comparison technique which is based on measuring the period difference between two signals. Other mixed-signal circuits are also developed to facilitate this approach. The PLL incorporating the proposed calibration technique is implemented in a 0.18-mum CMOS process. The measured PLL phase noise at 10 GHz is -102 dBc/Hz at 1-MHz offset frequency and the reference spurs are lower than -48 dBc. The PLL consumes 44 mW in the low-current mode. The calibration time is less than 4mus     

A multiple-crystal interface PLL with VCO realignment to reduce phase noise

An enhancement to a conventional integer-N phase-locked loop (PLL) is introduced, analyzed, and demonstrated experimentally to significantly reduce voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) phase noise. The enhancement, which involves periodically injection locking the VCO to a buffered version of the reference, has the effect of widening the PLL bandwidth and reducing the overall phase noise. It is demonstrated in a 3-V 6.8-mW CMOS reference PLL with a ring VCO capable of converting most of the popular crystal reference frequencies to a 96-MHz RF PLL reference and baseband clock for a direct conversion Bluetooth wireless LAN. The peak in-band phase noise at an offset of 20 kHz is -102 dBc/Hz with the technique enabled and -92 dBc/Hz with the technique disabled. A theoretical analysis is presented and shown to be in close agreement with the measured results.