Opportunity
Millimeter Wave applications have been the key propellers on many fronts like 5G, autonomous cars, medical and so forth. In the millimeter-wave frequency band, one of the key components is the local oscillator which provides a stable and pure oscillating source to transfer the signal to the targeted channel. Yet millimeter-wave operation with advanced digital CMOS nodes is still challenging. Traditional circuit topologies used for communications at lower frequencies ported to millimeter-wave frequencies typically either do not work properly or require a large power consumption. This invention provides a subharmonic injection locking that allows for high-frequency operations with relatively low power consumption. Since the injection locked frequency tripler has two locking ranges around the two resonant frequencies of the VCO, a wide locking range is achieved when these two locking ranges overlap.
Technology
Millimeter Wave applications have been the key propellers on many fronts like 5G, autonomous cars, medical and so forth. In the millimeter-wave frequency band, one of the key components is the local oscillator which provides a stable and pure oscillating source to transfer the signal to the targeted channel. Yet millimeter-wave operation with advanced digital CMOS nodes is still challenging. Traditional circuit topologies used for communications at lower frequencies ported to millimeter-wave frequencies typically either do not work properly or require a large power consumption. This invention provides a subharmonic injection locking that allows for high-frequency operations with relatively low power consumption. Since the injection locked frequency tripler has two locking ranges around the two resonant frequencies of the VCO, a wide locking range is achieved when these two locking ranges overlap.
Advantages
- A wide locking range injection locked frequency tripler with easy control based on a dual-resonance transformer tank.
- The oscillation frequency can be forced to change easily which is quite different from the other dual-band oscillators.
- The coupling coefficient (k) of the transformer can be selected to achieve an overlapping locking range of the injection-locked frequency tripler according to the required resonant frequencies.
Applications
- 5G and 6G communications
- Autonomous car sensors
