An 80–84.8 GHz PLL with auto-tracking Miller divider for FMCW applications

Abstract To generate high frequency signals for frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) application, components such as doubler, tripler or multiplier are usually utilized to process further signals from the low frequency voltage controlled oscillator (VCO). In this paper, a phase-locked loop (PLL) is intended to be the primary part used to generate frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) signals from 80 to 84.8 GHz by utilizing a fundamental frequency VCO. To divide those high frequency output signal and large output bandwidth, the auto-tracking Miller divider topology is proposed. This new topology can achieve 9 GHz locking range. In order to generate FMCW signals with a straight-line triangular chirp, the cascaded PLL is used. The integrated jitter from 1 kHz to 1 GHz is 887 fs for the cascaded PLL, while the single stage PLL used 1.264 ps. Moreover, when architecture with doubler or multiplier is used, the fundamental tone has an effect towards the next systems, while the cascaded PLL does not. It can be highlighted that this work achieves the best RMS-FM error /BW chirp and RMS-FM error /(BW chirp × f c × T c ) with value of 0.013% and 0.77e−12 , respectively. The designed PLL for FMCW signal generator is implemented in 28 nm CMOS technology. By using a supply voltage of 1.2 V, the chip consumes power of 102 mW. Including all the chip pads, the implemented circuit occupies a silicon area of 1440 µm × 820 µm.