From ultra-wide-band signals to coherent frequency synthesis

This paper describes the potentialities of ultra-wide-band signals that can be used as coherent signals. Starting from what traditionally are parasitic spikes in UWB signals, this work shows how an UWB can be coherent to a low frequency reference. Coherence is shown for a periodically repeated oscillation train (PROT) that has particular spectrum characteristics. The coherence mechanism is experimentally demonstrated with a PROT generator in the 60 GHz band fabricated on a standard CMOS 40nm technology. Finally, the PROT signal characteristics are used in order to synthesize a CW sine signal with low phase noise in the 60 GHz band. This is achieved with the use of an injection locked oscillator. It is shown that the synthesized signal reproduces the phase noise characteristics of the input low frequency signal.