Design issues of a low power wideband frequency doubler implementation in 0.18 μm CMOS

This paper presents design issues of a wideband, low power implementation of a frequency doubler (FD) in a commercial 0.18 μm CMOS process. The FD consists of two identical unbalanced source-coupled pairs with different width-to-length (W/L) ratios, whose inputs are connected in parallel and its output is taken single-ended. Amplitude and phase mismatch at the differential input are considered and it is shown that there is minimal effect on the output amplitude of the 2nd harmonic for a 5 dB difference in input amplitude and a 45° difference in phase. Under matched conditions, the implemented frequency doubler can be operated at a supply voltage as low as 1 V, which corresponded to a power consumption of less than 1 mW, has a 3 dB output bandwidth of 4 GHz and a conversion gain of 2.5 dB. At a supply voltage of 1.2 V, the frequency doubler consumed 1.32 mW, has a 3 dB output bandwidth of 3 GHz and a conversion gain of 5 dB. The phase niose degradation is 6 dB in both cases.