A Novel K-Band Divide-by-4 Injection-Locked Frequency Divider

In this paper, a novel low power divide-by-4 injection-locked frequency divider (ILFD) with a wide locking range implemented in the 0.18 μm CMOS process for K-band applications is presented. By adopting a stacked cross-coupled transistor pair topology and a source inductive resonating technique, the locking range without the help of varactors and the power consumption of the proposed ILFD are both improved. Under 0-dBm input power level, the proposed divide-by-4 ILFD achieves a 9.8% locking range which is from 19.4 to 21.4 GHz. The core circuit of the proposed divide-by-4 ILFD consumes a 4.2 mW dc power from a 1.5-V supply.