A 60-GHz Area-Efficient Coupled Standing-Wave-Oscillators LO Distribution Network for a 240-GHz 2-D Phased-Array

This paper presents a 60-GHz LO distribution network for a 240-GHz 2-D phased-array transceiver in TSMC 28-nm CMOS technology. The network couples multiple half-wavelength standing-wave oscillators (C-SWOs) through single-sided transmission-line coupling with layout optimized for area efficiency and unit-element symmetry. The 4×2 array prototype shows the desired synchronicity from the measured phase noise improvement as well as the observation of the injection-pulling spectrum. The tolerance of array to element mismatches are quantified and the phase skews at 0.33~3.28° between pairs of SWOs are measured. Per element power consumption is 15 mW.