Divide-by-8 phase detector MMIC for PLL-based carrier recovery in E-band communication

A combined frequency divider and phase detector MMIC has been successfully realized in an GaAs mHEMT process with 100nm gate length, forming the base of a PLL carrier recovery for an E-band communication system. The frequency-divider-by-8 provides a sensitivity down to -54dBm - to the author's knowledge the highest sensitivity published in the E-band - and a bandwidth of 4.2GHz at a reference input power of -8 dBm. In an on-wafer measurement, the phase detector is measured with a detector gain of 293 mV/rad. In total, the IC draws a DC power of 734mW and measures 1.5 × 3.5 mm
²
.