A multi-core VCO and a frequency quadrupler for E-Band adaptive-modulation links in 55nm BiCMOS

摘要

This paper presents a BiCMOS VCO followed by a frequency quadrupler for E-Band wireless backhaul applications. The VCO is based on a multi-core architecture, allowing to scale the phase-noise performance according to the modulation order in a power-efficient way. The frequency quadrupler employs transformer-coupled resonators for bandwidth enhancement and single-ended-to-differential conversion. Measured prototypes achieve -105dBc/Hz phase noise at 1MHz offset from 84 GHz, with 15.8% tuning range and -186dBc/Hz FoM.