A TSPC mm-Wave Frequency Divider with up to 50 GHz Input Frequency in 12 nm FinFET Bulk CMOS

This paper presents a digital frequency divider that utilizes two dynamic TSPC flip-flops for a division ratio of four. The circuit operates over a wide supply voltage range spanning from 0.4 V to 1.0 V and reaches operating frequencies of at least 50 GHz limited by measurement equipment. The circuit draws 560 µA from a 0.7 V supply rail and achieves a locking range of above 48 GHz with a fixed bias and supply voltage. The demonstrated divider circuit is fabricated in a 12 nm bulk CMOS FinFET node and occupies a core area of only 2.7 µm2, while achieving similar performance to RF frequency dividers fabricated in SOI process nodes. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the presented circuit is the first mm-wave frequency divider built on a FinFET process reaching an operating frequency of 50 GHz while having the smallest reported chip area consumption found in literature.