Wide-Band Subharmonically Injection-Locked Oscillators Using Three-Dimensional MMIC Technology

Kenji KAMOGAWA  Ichihiko TOYODA  Tsuneo TOKUMITSU  Kenjiro NISHIKAWA  

Publication
IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Electronics   Vol.E81-C    No.6    pp.848-855
Publication Date: 1998/06/25
Online ISSN: 
DOI: 
Print ISSN: 0916-8516
Type of Manuscript: Special Section PAPER (Special Issue on Microwave and Millimeter-Wave Module Technology)
Category: Functional Modules and the Design Technology
Keyword: 
frequency synthesizer,  injection-locked oscillator,  millimeter-wave,  MMIC,  masterslice,  three-dimensional,  

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Summary: 
Subharmonically Injection-locked oscillators (ILO's) with very wide injection-locking ability are presented. Two types of ILO MMIC's with this ability are proposed. The oscillation frequency tuning function of the ILO MMIC is very useful for expansion of the injection locking range at higher subharmonics. One consists of a shunt varactor diode inserted into the oscillation loop, and the other incorporates a vector-combining configuration with in-phase divider and 90 degree hybrid. Using three-dimensional MMIC's technology which can offer miniature and high-density passive circuits, the vector-combining type ILO is formed in a very compact area of 1. 7 mm2. Fabricated 20 GHz-band ILO achieves a wide tuning ranges of 870 MHz, resulting in a very wide locking range for higher subharmonics. The wide frequency tuning ability also reduces phase noise, shortens a locking time and compensates the center frequency deviation against temperature, as well as increasing locking range. The measured results show that the ILO configuration is extremely suitable for realizing simple, fully monolithic and low phase noise millimeter-wave frequency synthesizers.