A Monolithic GHz - to - kHz Frequency Divider Combining ECL and I2L Techniques

In this paper, a 16 stage frequency divider (1:65536) featuring GHz-capability at a total power consumption of 300 mW is realized through a unique monolithic combination of advanced bipolar UHF and I
²
L technologies. The device serves as a prototype of ICs monolithically integrating the prescaler and divider functions in frequency synthesizer systems and/or measuring equipment. A second (more general) aim of this work was to investigate the properties of frequency dividers, e.g. upper frequency limit and power consumption, when combining very high speed ECL and I
²
L on one chip and to find the optimum frequency range for the transition from ECL to I
²
L stages in a frequency divider chain.