A silicon bipolar broadband PLL building block integrated circuit

A broadband phase-lock loop building block IC that can accommodate signal frequencies from 0.5 GHz to 9 GHz is presented. The design integrates a prescaler with selectable divide ratio, a phase detector, a voltage-controlled oscillator for production testing, and associated circuitry. The chip is designed in a silicon bipolar linear array technology and packaged in a 16-pin plastic dual in-line package. The result is a low-cost, broadband solution for a variety of PLL systems.