A Wide Tuning Range and Low Phase Noise Quotient Frequency Synthesizer for Multiband Millimeter-Wave Applications

This paper presents an integer-N quotient frequency synthesizer (QFS) for V, E, and W multiband millimeter-wave transceiver applications. Design considerations of passive and active components to improve tuning range and phase noise of LC-VCO are presented. A complementary dual-injection injection-locked divider (ILFD) structure with independent gate biasing is proposed to improve injection efficiency and frequency locking range. A pseudo-differential cascode buffer structure is developed to improve the stability of the VCO buffer. The QFS is fabricated in a 0.13 μm CMOS process, achieving a wide frequency range of 27.38 to 33.5 GHz while drawing 70mA of current. At 27.4 GHz, the measured closed-loop phase noises are -80.2, -111.3 and -125.5 dBc at 1, 10 and 100 MHz offset, respectively.