Phase Noise Analysis and Estimate of Millimeter Wave PLL Frequency Synthesizer

Phase noise is an important index in evaluating the performance of millimeter wave (MMW) frequency source. Because of the high frequency, it is difficult to measure its phase noise directly. So it is very necessary to find new methods for estimating it effectively and easily. In this paper, the main factors affecting phase noise of MMW PLL frequency source are analyzed, and then a new method to estimate the phase noise is presented, which is based on the comparison of the phase noise of microwave phase-locked frequency source with phase-locked intermediate frequency in MMW phase-locked loop. In order to demonstrate the validity of this method of phase noise estimate, it is applied to estimate the phase noise of 95GHz double PLL frequency synthesizer. The result shows that the theoretical estimate value is well coincident with the experimental value.