A 40-GHz phase-locked loop front-end for 60-GHz transceivers in 65nm CMOS

A phase-locked loop front-end including a LC voltage controlled oscillator and an I-Q injection locked frequency divider is presented. The operation ranges of the VCO and ILFD are aligned by co-designing the tank, specifically the tunable varactors. The total locking range of the front-end is 37.6 to 42.2 GHz which corresponds to a down-conversion range from 56.4 to 63.3 GHz at 60 GHz, thus covering the complete ISM band. The front-end phase noise for a VCO frequency of 39.8 GHz is −102 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset. The DC power consumption of the VCO and Q-ILFD is 6mW and 9mW from a 1.2 V supply, respectively. Implemented in a bulk CMOS 65nm technology, the circuit occupies an area of 0.7×0.5 mm
²
.