• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.41-48
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• 2002

This paper presents a 18-mW, 2.5-㎓ fractional-N frequency synthesizer with l-bit $4^{th}$-order interpolative delta-sigma ($\Delta{\;}$\sum$)modulator to suppress fractional spurious tones while reducing in-band phase noise. A fractional-N frequency synthesizer with a quadruple prescaler has been designed and implemented in a $0.5-\mu\textrm{m}$ 15-GHz $f_t$ BiCMOS. Synthesizing 2.1 GHzwith less than 200 Hz resolution, it exhibits an in-band phase noise of less than -85 dBc/Hz at 1 KHz offset frequency with a reference spur of -85 dBc and no fractional spurs. The synthesizer also shows phase noise of -139 dBc/Hz at an offset frequency of 1.2 MHz from a 2.1GHz center frequency.