IEICE Transactions on Electronics
Online ISSN : 1745-1353
Print ISSN : 0916-8524
Special Section on Emerging Technologies and Applications for Microwave and Millimeter-Wave Systems
A Small Size 100MHz to 13.4GHz Fractional-N RF Synthesizer for RF ATE Based on 13-band VCOs and 48-bit ΔΣ Modulator
Masayuki KIMISHIMAHidenori SAKAIHaruki NAGAMIGoh UTAMARUHideki SHIRASUYoshinori KOGAMI
Author information
JOURNAL RESTRICTED ACCESS

2013 Volume E96.C Issue 10 Pages 1227-1235

Details
Abstract

This paper describes a small size broadband fractional-N RF synthesizer for an RF test module with a high throughput and multiple resources installed in RF Automated Test Equipment (ATE) systems. The core device is the PLL-LSI composed of the 13-band asymmetrical tournament form voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs) and the proposed 48-bit ΔΣ modulator with the infinite impulse response (IIR) filter. The single-loop PLL RF synthesizer is constructed in the form of systems in package (SiP) including the PLL-LSI and the active loop filter. The RF synthesizer SiP features a small size of 20mm × 20mm × 3mm, a high frequency resolution of smaller than 50µHz, and a phase noise of better than -110dBc/Hz at offset frequency of 1MHz across a frequency range of 100MHz to 13.4GHz. In addition, a frequency settling time of 150 µs that is faster than our conventional dual-loop PLL synthesizers using the discrete VCOs or the YIG-tuned oscillators (YTOs) is achieved. The synthesizer SiP significantly contributes to the realization of small size, high throughput RF test modules for RF ATEs.

Content from these authors
© 2013 The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers
Previous article Next article
feedback
Top