A V-band phase-locked loop with a novel phase-frequency detector in 65 nm CMOS

A 65–67 GHz phase-locked loop (PLL) with a novel low power phase-frequency detector (PFD) in 65 nm LP CMOS is presented. The PLL consists of a V-band voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO), a divide-by-two injection-locked frequency divider (ILFD), and a current-mode logic (CML) divider chain. A charge pump (CP) and a 2nd-order loop filter are used with PFD for VCO tuning. The PFD is implemented with 16 transistors with dead-zone-free capability. The measured locking range of the PLL is from 65.15 to 67.4 GHz, with −11.5 dBm measured output power at 66.05 GHz while consuming 88 mW. The measured phase noise at 1 MHz offset is −84.43 dBc/Hz. The chip area of the PLL is 0.84 mm² including probing pads. The proposed PLL can be utilized as a frequency synthesizer for carrier signal generation in IEEE 802.11ad standard high data rate transceiver circuits.