A prescaler is widely used in frequency synthesizers in order to handle channel selection. The division ratio has to be chosen carefully to achieve the desired frequency. In this paper, we present a 6 modulus prescaler in a 0.18 μm SiGe BiCMOS technology. The prescaler is part of a 60 GHz frequency synthesizer. In addition, we present a frequency planning for the 60 GHz frequency synthesizer. The prescaler employs an integer-N architecture. The circuit has a programmable divider with a division ratio of 7 and 8 and two counters to control the division ratio. The programmable divider utilizes ECL circuits, while the counters utilise CMOS circuits. Therefore an ECL-to-CMOS converter is used to bridge these two kinds of circuits. Simulation results show that the prescaler operates up to 4 GHz from a 1.8 V supply voltage.
KEYWORDS: Photomicroscopy, Oscillators, Receivers, Linear filtering, Bandpass filters, Logic, VHF band, Signal detection, Sensors, Digital signal processing
High speed frequency dividers are critical parts of frequency synthesisers in wireless systems. These dividers
allow the output frequency from a voltage controlled oscillator to be compared with a much lower external
reference frequency that is commonly used in these synthesisers. Common trade-offs in high frequency dividers
are speed of division, power consumption, real estate area, and output signal dynamic range. In this paper
we demonstrate the design of a high frequency, low power divider in 0.18 µm SiGe BiCMOS technology. Three
dividers are presented, which are a regenerative divider, a master-slave divider, and a combination of regenerative
and master-slave dividers to perform a divide-by-8 chain. The dividers are used as part of a 60 GHz frequency
synthesizer. The simulation results are in agreement with measured performance of the regenerative divider.
At 48 GHz the divider consumes 18 mW from a 1.8 V supply voltage. The master-slave divider operates up to
36 GHz from a very low supply voltage, 1.8 V. The divide-by-8 operates successfully from 40 GHz to 50 GHz.
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