A 20GHz ILFD with locking range of 31% for divide-by-4 and 15% for divide-by-8 using progressive mixing

This paper proposes Progressive Mixing Injection Locked Frequency Divider (PMILFD) technique that enhances the locking range for higher division ratios. The wide locking range is achieved through the use of progressive mixing approach contrary to the conventional method that uses direct mixing to generate the injection signal. This allows for the use of lower and much stronger harmonics in the mixing process resulting in a stronger injection effect. Two 20GHz PMILFDs were designed based on this approach to perform division by 4 and 8 using 65nm CMOS process. The divide-by-4 PMILFD achieves a 7.9GHz (31.4%) locking range and the divide-by-8 achieves 3.4GHz (15.5%) while consuming 3.9mW and 7.1mW, respectively.