A 50 to 100GHz frequency synthesizer with 17dB side-band suppression using a single VCO core

In this paper an octave bandwidth frequency synthesizer operating from 50 to 100 GHz is presented. The complete proposed system is fabricated using a low-cost SiGe technology with an f_t/f_max of 200/250 GHz. The frequency synthesizer employs a single wideband VCO core, with a tuning range above 30%, and a single SSB-mixer with a pass-through mode of operation. This low complexity in the design is highly advantageous in mm-wave circuit design. The operation of the frequency synthesizer is completely verified by measurements, where the output power is measured to be between -5 to -12 dBm over the entire frequency range. Moreover, the frequency synthesizer´s output phase noise is measured to be between -83 and -96 dBc/Hz at 1MHz offset over the complete output frequency range. The overall chip draws 181mA from a 3.3V supply, and consumes a compact chip area of 1028 μm ×; 1228 μm.