A Low Power and Wideband 28-41GHz PLL Design for mm-Wave Applications

A low-power and wideband mm-Wave phase locked loop is introduced at TSMC 40nm, which features two wideband, low phase noise VCOs and a high speed prescaler frequency-divider. The NMOS-only Dual- VCOs cover the frequency from 28 to 41GHz at all PVT corners. And the prescaler divide-by-4 divider chain obtains compact area and wide locking range with a low power consumption. The measurement results show that the PLL could cover the frequency from 28GHz to 41GHz only consuming 10.23mW and the phase noise of the system is -120.3dBc/Hz@10MHz.