An injection‐locked frequency quadrupler in 90 nm CMOS technology

Abstract

On‐chip high‐frequency frequency sources suffer from quality (Q)‐factor degradation of varactors.Injection‐locked frequency multipliers allow the design of oscillators running at a frequency lower than required to take the advantage of higher Q‐factor varactor. This article proposes a fully integrated CMOS LC‐tank injection‐locked frequency quadrupler fabricated in the TSMC 90 nm RF‐CMOS process and describes the circuit design, operation principle, and measurement results of the quadrupler. The injection‐locked frequency quadrupler comprises a first‐harmonic injection‐locked oscillator with dual‐injection ports, two frequency doublers and a transformer balun. At the supply voltage of 0.7 V, the dc power consumption is 9.1 mW. At the incident power of 0 dBm, the injection‐locked frequency quadrupler can provide an output signal with the frequency from 24 to 29.6 GHz, while the frequency of the injection signal varies from 6 to 7.4 GHz. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 55:266–269, 2012; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/mop.27291

CMOS Injection-Locked Frequency Quadrupler/Quintupler

“…In the past, many ×4 ILFM's have been implemented. [15], [16], [18]. One ×4 ILFM consists of a cross-coupled injection-locked oscillator [19], [20].…”

“…Injection-locked frequency quadruplers are easy to configure with one first-harmonic injection-locked oscillator and two frequency doublers [14] as shown in Fig. 2(a).The injection locked frequency quadrupler with quadrature outputs [15] shows rather limited locking range. The injection locked frequency quadrupler [16] as shown in Fig.…”