A wide-band tuning system for fully integrated satellite receivers

The building blocks for a low-power tuning system that reduces the phase noise of integrated VCO's are described. The multimodulus prescaler, the phase frequency detector, and the wide-band charge pump have been integrated in a standard bipolar technology with 9-GHz n-p-n transistors and 200-MHz p-n-p transistors. The maximum input frequency of the multimodulus prescaler is 3.2 GHz, the maximum reference frequency of the phase frequency detector is 380 MHz, and the 3-dB bandwidth of the charge pump is 41 MHz at a reference frequency of 300 MHz. The achieved performance enables the use of fully integrated VCO's with relatively high phase noise for reception of satellite digital signals.