Design of a Low Noise Power Efficient RO-ILFD for Radar Sensor Applications

Surface movement radar (SMR) is essential for airport monitoring, with phase-locked loops (PLLs) serving as key oscillators. Injection-locked frequency dividers (ILFDs) within PLLs ensure precise frequency division, enabling accurate and stable radar signal processing. Focusing on a ILFD design featuring PMOS body injection, the study demonstrates how this technique reduces phase noise, and maintains low power consumption. Utilizing a ring oscillator, the ILFD achieves a wide locking range from 26.2 GHz to 35 GHz and exhibits a free-running frequency of 9.7 GHz. The ILFD's performance, including phase noise of -147.16 dBc/Hz and a power consumption of only 0.366 mW, highlights its suitability for surface movement radar. Detailed post-layout simulation results and a comparison with existing ILFD designs underscore the advantages of the proposed method, particularly in achieving high frequency stability and efficiency in a compact die area of 18 μm². This work affirms the ILFD's potential for surface movement radar requiring precise and reliable high-frequency signal synthesis.