A 90-nm CMOS 144 GHz Injection Locked Frequency Divider with Inductive Feedback

This paper presents a 144 GHz divide-by-2 injection locked frequency divider (ILFD) with inductive feedback developed in a commercial 90-nm Si RFCMOS technology. It was demonstrated that division-by-2 operation is achieved with input power down to -12 dBm, with measured locking range of 0.96 GHz (144.18 – 145.14 GHz) at input power of -3 dBm. To the authors’ best knowledge, this is the highest operation frequency for ILFD based on a 90nm CMOS technology. From supply voltage of 1.8 V, the circuit draws 5.7 mA including both core and buffer. The fabricated chip occupies 0.54 mm × 0.69 mm including the DC and RF pads.