Integration of CMOS VCO and Frequency Divider for Ku-Band Low-Power Frequency Synthesizer

This paper presents the integration design and implementation of low-power voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) and frequency divider for the Ku-band frequency synthesizer use. The integrated circuit is implemented by a 0.18 mum CMOS technology. To achieve the low-power consumption, the VCO core and the divider core are constructed in the complementary cross-coupled pair and in the injection-locked configuration, respectively. The experimental results show the VCO and the divider consume 3.1 mW and 4.2 mW at a 1.4 V supply voltage, respectively. The VCO oscillates at 14.33 GHz with a 900-MHz tuning range. The measured phase noise is around -110 dBc/Hz at 1-MHz offset in whole tuning range. The measured locking range of the divider is about 400 MHz with a phase noise level of around -106 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset.