ANALYSIS ON STRONGLY COUPLED OSCILLATOR ARRAYS USING MODIFIED Y-PARAMETERS APPROACH

A modifled Y -parameters approach is proposed to model the behavior of coupled oscillator arrays (COA's). A coupling network with tunable coupling strength is proposed, which has a near- constant input conductance, to ensure the oscillation condition under difierent attenuation levels. The parameters of oscillators and the coupling network are derived on the TSMC 0.18"m technology, and their Y parameters are extracted around 10GHz for illustration. After being verifled with full- circuit simulations and other behavior models, including the Adler's equation and the conventional Y - parameters approach, this method is applied to estimate the maximum allowable number of oscillators that can be coupled together. The inter-element phase shift of a COA is controlled by tuning the free-running frequencies of oscillators at both ends. Injection signals with proper phases are proposed to synchronize multiple COA's into a bigger COA.