An integrated frequency synthesizer in 130 nm SiGe BiCMOS technology for 28/38 GHz 5G wireless networks

An integrated frequency synthesizer for 28.733.7 GHz is presented. This wide tuning range is achieved at low phase noise by combining capacitive tuning and inductor switching in the voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO). The synthesizer lends itself to the realization of integrated transceiver frontends when using a sliding-IF architecture, both for the 28 GHz and the 38 GHz band. It occupies a chip area of 5 mm
²
including bondpads and draws 171 mA from a 2.5 V supply. The phase noise at 1 MHz offset from the 30 GHz carrier is between -100 and -97 dBc/Hz.