A 16mW 8Mbps fractional-n FSK modulator at 15.8-18.9GHz
June 3, 2007
Conference Paper
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2007 IEEE Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits Symp., 3-5 June 2007, pp. 533-536.
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Summary
Indirect modulation of fractional-N synthesizers is an energy-efficient architecture capable of moderate data rates, and is well-suited for use in sensor networks or WLAN. Although the architecture is used primarily at low RF frequencies, the capability for fractional- N synthesizers at Ku-band and above currently exist in available silicon technology. Recent demonstrations at 10- 25GHz show promising results, although power consumption at this higher frequency remains high for small batterypowered devices. This work implements a fully-integrated fractional-N synthesizer optimized for power efficient modulation at 15.8 to 18.9GHz with an 80MHz reference. Binary and 4-ary FSK modulation of up to 8Mbps is achieved while consuming 16mW in IBM 0.18um SiGe BiCMOS.