Self-injection-locked Divide-by-3 Frequency Divider with Improved Locking Range, Phase Noise, and Input Sensitivity

• Published in: Journal of semiconductor technology and science Vol. 17; no. 4; pp. 492 - 498
• Main Authors: Lee, Sanghun, Jang, Sunhwan, Nguyen, Cam, Choi, Dae-Hyun, Kim, Jusung
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 대한전자공학회 01.08.2017
• Subjects: 전기공학; self-injection; sensitivity; locking-range; Injection-locking; frequency divider; phase noise
• ISSN: 1598-1657; 2233-4866
• DOI: 10.5573/JSTS.2017.17.4.492

In this paper, we integrate a divide-by-3 injection-locked frequency divider (ILFD) in CMOS technology with a 0.18-μm BiCMOS process. We propose a self-injection technique that utilizes harmonic conversion to improve the locking range, phase-noise, and input sensitivity simultaneously. The proposed self-injection technique consists of an odd-to-even harmonic converter and a feedback amplifier. This technique offers the advantage of increasing the injection efficiency at even harmonics and thus realizes the low-power implementation of an odd-order division ILFD. The measurement results using the proposed self-injection technique show that the locking range is increased by 47.8% and the phase noise is reduced by 14.7 dBc/Hz at 1-MHz offset frequency with the injection power of -12 dBm. The designed divide-by-3 ILFD occupies 0.048 mm2 with a power consumption of 18.2-mW from a 1.8-V power supply. KCI Citation Count: 0