Design and Tuning of Coupled-LC mm-Wave Subharmonically Injection-Locked Oscillators
 
Design and Tuning of Coupled-LC mm-Wave Subharmonically Injection-Locked Oscillators 
 
G. Mangraviti, G. Mangraviti, K. Khalaf, K. Khalaf, Bertrand Parvais, Bertrand Parvais, Kristof Vaesen, Kristof Vaesen, V. Szortyka, V. Szortyka, Gerd Vandersteen, Gerd Vandersteen, Piet Wambacq, Piet Wambacq
 
Abstract 

This paper analyzes and demonstrates the use of coupled-LC tanks to enlarge the locking range (LR) of millimeter-wave (mm-wave) subharmonically injection-locked oscillators. Design guidelines are derived from a simplified analysis. Different techniques are proposed to tune the coupled-LC tank. A mm-wave subharmonically injection-locked quadrature voltage-controlled oscillator in 40-nm CMOS verifies the proposed approach. The LR is larger than 2 GHz over a 55-63-GHz tuning range. An on-chip envelope detector facilitates the tuning of the coupled-LC tank. The phase noise and the quadrature-phase imbalance are uniform over almost the whole LR.