W-band frequency synthesis using a Ka-band PLL and two different frequency triplers

Two chips for 96GHz frequency generation incorporating the same Ka-band PLL and (1) an injection-locked frequency tripler (ILFT); (2) a harmonic-based frequency tripler (HBFT) in 0.18μm SiGe BiCMOS are presented. The ILFT and HBFT preceded by the same Kaband PLL achieve measured closed-loop phase noise of -93dBc/Hz and -92dBc/Hz at 1MHz offset, respectively, from a reference frequency of 125MHz. The measured reference spurs are <;-52dBc for both prototypes. Both chips have the same power consumption of 140mW from 1.8V/2.5V supplies. To the authors' best knowledge, this work presents the first implementation of an injection-locked-based frequency multiplier in SiGe BiCMOS process and performs a comparative study between two different triplers.