FULLY INTEGRATED FREQUENCY SYNTHESIZERS: A TUTORIAL

Frequency synthesizer is a key building block of fully-integrated wireless communications systems. Design of a frequency synthesizer (FS) requires the understanding of not only the circuit-level but also of the transceiver system-level considerations. The FS design challenge involves strong trade-offs, and often conflicting requirements. In this tutorial, the general implementation issues and recent developments of frequency synthesizer design are discussed. Simplified design approach should provide readers with sufficient intuition for fast design and troubleshooting capability. Open problems in this FS field are briefly discussed.