Dual-Channel Injection-Locked Quadrature LO Generation for a 4-GHz Instantaneous Bandwidth Receiver at 21-GHz Center Frequency

This paper presents a local oscillator (LO) generation scheme for a 21-GHz center-frequency 4-GHz instantaneous bandwidth channelized receiver. A single 1.33-GHz reference source is used to simultaneously generate 20- and 22-GHz LOs with quadrature outputs. Injection locking is used instead of conventional phase-locked loop techniques allowing low-power quadrature generation. A harmonic-rich signal, containing both even and odd harmonics of the input reference signal, is generated using a digital pulse slimmer. Two injection-locked oscillator chains are used to lock on to the 10th and 11th harmonics of the reference signal generating the 20- and 22-GHz quadrature LOs, respectively. The prototype design is implemented in IBM´s 130-nm CMOS process, draws 110 mA from a 1.2-V supply, and occupies an active area of 1.8 mm².