D-band frequency synthesis using a U-band PLL and frequency tripler in 65nm CMOS technology

This paper presents a digitally controlled frequency synthesizer in 65nm CMOS technology for D-band transceiver applications. The synthesizer uses a low frequency U Band (44–48 GHz) phase-locked loop to track a 50 MHz reference and then employs an injection locked frequency tripler (ILFT) to provide output that can be tuned between 130 and 133 GHz. The proposed D-band synthesizer offers a directly measured phase noise of −82.5 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset from the carrier and consumes 92mW of power. The entire syntheszier occupies 0.68mm² of silicon area.