Self-injection-locked Divide-by-3 Frequency Divider with Improved Locking Range, Phase Noise, and Input Sensitivity

In this paper, we integrate a divide-by-3 injection-locked frequency divider (ILFD) in CMOS technology with a $0.18-{\mu}m$ BiCMOS process. We propose a self-injection technique that utilizes harmonic conversion to improve the locking range, phase-noise, and input sensitivity simultaneously. The proposed self-injection technique consists of an odd-to-even harmonic converter and a feedback amplifier. This technique offers the advantage of increasing the injection efficiency at even harmonics and thus realizes the low-power implementation of an odd-order division ILFD. The measurement results using the proposed self-injection technique show that the locking range is increased by 47.8% and the phase noise is reduced by 14.7 dBc/Hz at 1-MHz offset frequency with the injection power of -12 dBm. The designed divide-by-3 ILFD occupies $0.048mm^2$ with a power consumption of 18.2-mW from a 1.8-V power supply.