A low-voltage 40-GHz complementary VCO with 15% frequency tuning range in SOI CMOS technology

The design of a low-voltage 40-GHz complementary voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) with 15% frequency tuning range fabricated in 0.13-/spl mu/m partially depleted silicon-on-insulator (SOI) CMOS technology is reported. Technological advantages of SOI over bulk CMOS are demonstrated, and the accumulation MOS (AMOS) varactor limitations on frequency tuning range are addressed. At 1.5-V supply, the VCO core and each output buffer consumes 11.25 mW and 3 mW of power, respectively. The measured phase noise at 40-GHz is -109.73 dBc/Hz at 4-MHz offset from the carrier, and the output power is -8 dBm. VCO performance using high resistivity substrate (/spl sim/300-/spl Omega//spl middot/cm) has the same frequency tuning range but 2 dB better phase noise compared with using low resistivity substrate (10 /spl Omega//spl middot/cm). The VCO occupies a chip area of only 100 /spl mu/m by 100 /spl mu/m (excluding pads).     

A 12-GHz Fully Integrated Cascode CMOS LC VCO With Q-Enhancement Circuit

A fully integrated complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) cascode LC voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) with Q-enhancement technique has been designed for high frequency and low phase noise. The symmetrical cascode architecture is implemented with negative conductance circuit for improving phase noise performance in 0.18 mum CMOS technology. The measured phase noise is -110.8 dBc/Hz at the offset frequency of 1 MHz. The tuning range of 630 MHz is achieved with the control voltage from 0.6 to 1.4 V. The VCO draws 4.5 mA in a differential core circuit from 1.8 V supply.     

A 20-GHz InP-HBT voltage-controlled oscillator with wide frequencytuning range

This paper presents the design and implementation of a 20-GHz-band differential voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) using InP heterojunction-bipolar-transistor process technology. Aimed at 20- or 40-Gb/s fiber-optic applications, the design is based on a single-stage feedback amplifier with no intentional L or C. The salient features of the proposed VCO are wide frequency tuning range compared to LC oscillators, and low power consumption and transistor count compared to ring-oscillator counterparts. The implemented VCO has an adjustable frequency range from 13.75 to 21.5 GHz and provides two complementary outputs. Total power consumption at 18.6 GHz is 130 mW, while the phase noise is -90.0 dBc/Hz measured at 1-MHz offset frequency     

An Integrated 5–2.5-GHz Direct-Injection Locked Quadrature LC VCO

This letter presents an integrated direct-injection locked quadrature voltage controlled oscillator (VCO), consisted of a 5-GHz VCO integrated with injection locked LC frequency dividers for low-power quadrature generation. The circuit is implemented using a standard 0.18-mum CMOS process. The differential VCO is a full PMOS Colpitts oscillator, and the frequency divider is performed by adding an injection nMOS between the differential outputs of complementary cross-coupled np-core LC VCO. The measurement results show that at the supply voltage of 1.8-V, the master 5-GHz VCO is tunable from 4.73 to 5.74GHz, and the slave 2.5-GHz VCO is tunable from 2.36 to 2.87GHz. The measured phase noise of master VCO is -118.2dBc/Hz while the locked quadrature output phase noise is -124.4dBc/Hz at 1-MHz offset frequency, which is 6.2dB lower than the master VCO. The core power consumptions are 7.8 and 8.7mW at master and slave VCOs, respectively     

宽频率范围的单子带压控振荡器设计

基于TSMC 180 nm CMOS工艺,提出了一种振荡频率为2～3 GHz的宽频率范围、低相位噪声的单子带压控振荡器(VCO).采用双平衡吉尔伯特混频结构,将单子带5～6 GHz压控振荡器与固定频率3 GHz压控振荡器进行下混频,可得到振荡频率为2～3 GHz的单子带压控振荡器,实现相对带宽从18.18％到40％的展...     

CMOS低相位噪声压控振荡器的设计

基于65 nm CMOS标准工艺库,设计了一个工作频率在10 GHz的具有低相位噪声的CMOS电感电容型压控振荡器。该压控振荡器选用CMOS互补交叉耦合型电路结构,采用威尔逊型尾电流源负反馈技术来降低相位噪声。仿真结果表明,此压控振荡器工作频率覆盖范围为9.9~11.2 GHz,调谐范围为12.3%,中心频率为10.5 GHz,在频率偏移中心频率1 MHz下的相位噪声为-113.3 dBc/Hz,核心功耗为2.25 mW。     

具有自校准压控振荡器和精确自动频率校准算法的低噪声频率合成器

A low noise phase locked loop （PLL） frequency synthesizer implemented in 65 nm CMOS technology is introduced. A VCO noise reduction method suited for short channel design is proposed to minimize PLL output phase noise. A self-calibrated voltage controlled oscillator is proposed in cooperation with the automatic frequency calibration circuit, whose accurate binary search algorithm helps reduce the VCO tuning curve coverage, which reduces the VCO noise contribution at PLL output phase noise. A low noise, charge pump is also introduced to extend the tuning voltage range of the proposed VCO, which further reduces its phase noise contribution. The frequency synthesizer generates 9.75-11.5 GHz high frequency wide band local oscillator （LO） carriers. Tested 11.5 GHz LO bears a phase noise of-104 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz frequency offset. The total power dissipation of the proposed frequency synthesizer is 48 mW. The area of the proposed frequency synthesizer is 0.3 mm^2, including bias circuits and buffers.     

CMOS Colpitts Quadrature VCO Using the Body Injection-Locked Coupling Technique

This paper presents a new low phase noise quadrature voltage-controlled oscillator (QVCO), which consists of two differential complementary Colpitts voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs) with a tail inductor. The output of the tail inductor in one differential VCO is injected to the bodies of the nMOSFETs in the other differential VCO and vice versa. The proposed CMOS QVCO has been implemented with the TSMC 0.18 mum CMOS technology and the die area is 0.725 times 0.839 mm². At the supply voltage of 1.1 V, the total power consumption is 9.9 mW. The free-running frequency of the QVCO is tunable from 5.26 GHz to 5.477 GHz as the tuning voltage is varied from 0.0 V to 1.1 V. The measured phase noise at 1 MHz frequency offset is -124.36 dBc/Hz at the oscillation frequency of 5.44 GHz and the figure of merit (FOM) of the proposed QVCO is -189.1 dBc/Hz.     

Noise property of a quadrature balanced VCO

A quadrature balanced voltage controlled oscillator (B-VCO) with current source switching is proposed and analyzed. This letter shows analytically that the switching improves the phase noise. A switched transistor is also used as a coupling transistor to generate quadrature signals without degrading the phase noise. To investigate the effect of quadrature coupling on the phase noise, a single B-VCO and a quadrature B-VCO are implemented with identical components in an 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS process. Both VCO cores draw about 8.8mA under a low bias voltage of 1.8V. The oscillation frequencies are 10.21GHz and 10.81GHz. The measured phase noises of the single at an offset frequency of 1MHz VCO is -114.83 dBc/Hz while that of the quadrature VCO is -116.67 dBc/Hz. The quadrature B-VCO is superior to the single B-VCO with respect to phase noise and oscillation frequency in the X-band.     

A low-phase-noise voltage-controlled oscillator for 17-GHz applications

A silicon bipolar voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) for 17-GHz applications is presented. The VCO is composed of a core oscillating at 9GHz followed by a frequency doubler. It adopts a transformer-based topology to obtain both wide tuning range and low noise performance. The VCO exhibits a tuning range of 4.1GHz from 16.4 to 20.5GHz and a phase noise as low as -109dBc/Hz at a 1-MHz frequency offset from a carrier of 18.5GHz.     

A novel complementary Colpitts differential CMOS VCO with low phase noise performance

A low phase noise Ka-band CMOS voltage-controlled oscillator is proposed in this paper. A new complementary Colpitts structure was adopted in a 0.18-μm CMOS process to achieve differential-ended outputs, low phase-noise performance, and low-power consumption. The designed VCO oscillates from 29.8 to 30 GHz with 200 MHz tuning range. The measured phase noise at 1-MHz offset is −109 dBc/Hz at 30 GHz and −105.5 dBc/Hz at 29.8 GHz. The power consumption of VCO is only 27 mW. In addition, compared with the published papers, the proposed CMOS VCO achieves the best figure of merit (FOM) of −185 dB at 29.95-GHz band.     

A compact 43-GHz monolithic differential VCO in 0.5-/spl mu/m InP DHBT technology

A compact monolithic integrated differential voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) using 0.5-/spl mu/m emitter width InP/InGaAs double-heterostructure bipolar transistors with a total chip size of 0.42 mm /spl times/ 0.46 mm is realized by using cross-coupled configuration for extremely high frequency satellite communications system applications. The device performance of F/sub max/ greater than 320 GHz at a current density of 5 mA//spl mu/m/sup 2/ and 5-V BVceo allows us to achieve a low phase noise 42.5-GHz fundamental VCO with -0.67-dBm output power. The VCO exhibits the phase noise of -106.8 dBc/Hz at 1-MHz offset and -122.3 dBc/Hz at 10-MHz offset from the carrier frequency.     

A 38% Tuning Bandwidth Low Phase Noise Differential Voltage Controlled Oscillator Using a 0.5 $mu$m E/D-PHEMT Process

This paper presents a 38% tuning bandwidth low phase noise differential voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) using a 0.5 $mu$m enhancement/depletion-pseudomorphic high-electron mobility transistor (E/D-PHEMT) process. The proposed VCO is based on a differential topology with two common-gate transistors. To achieve a wide tuning range with low phase noise, varactor in the VCO core employs the E-mode PHEMT device. The frequency of the VCO is from 18.8 to 27.5 GHz with a tuning bandwidth of 38% and an output power of higher than 5 dBm. The VCO demonstrates a phase noise of ${-}109$ dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset frequency. This circuit can be compared with the VCOs fabricated using the advanced InP HBT technologies.      

Balanced Colpitt oscillator MMICs designed for ultra-low phase noise

Balanced voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs) based on a coupled Colpitt topology with a fully integrated tank are presented utilizing SiGe heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) and InGaP/GaAs HBT technologies. Minimum phase noise is obtained for all designs by optimization of the tank circuit including the varactor, maximizing the tank amplitude, and designing the VCO for Class C operation. Fundamental and second harmonic VCOs are evaluated. A minimum phase noise of less than -112 dBc at an output power of 5.5 dBm is achieved at 100-kHz carrier offset and 6.4-GHz oscillation frequency for the fundamental InGaP/GaAs HBT VCO. The second harmonic VCO achieves a minimum measured phase noise of -120 dBc at 100 kHz at 13 GHz. To our best knowledge, this is the lowest reported phase noise to date for a varactor-based VCO with a fully integrated tank. The fundamental frequency SiGe HBT oscillator achieves a phase noise of -108 dBc at 100 kHz at 5 GHz. All MMICs are fabricated in commercial foundry MMIC processes.     

A Subthreshold Low Phase Noise CMOS LC VCO for Ultra Low Power Applications

A subthreshold low power, low phase-noise voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) is demonstrated in a commercial 0.18 mum CMOS process. In subthreshold regime, MOS drain current is dominated by diffusion mechanism resulting in a high ratio of transconductance to drain current and suppressed phase noise. Therefore, low power and low phase noise characteristics are achieved without using nonconventional high passive components. The VCO measures a phase noise of -106 dBc/Hz at 400 kHz offset from 2.63 GHz oscillation frequency with 0.43 mW power dissipation drawn from 0.45 V power supply. Figures of merit for this VCO (power-frequency-normalized of 12 dB and power frequency-tuning-normalized of -10 dB) are among the best reported for CMOS oscillators.     

A 580-μW 1.8–6 GHz Multiband Switched-Resonator SiGe VCO With 0.3-V Supply Voltage

This letter presents a fully integrated low-power low-voltage multiband switched-resonator differential cross-coupled voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) implemented in 0.18 SiGe-BiCMOS technology. The VCO operates with a supply voltage as low as 0.29 V, owing to the low knee-voltage provided by the technology, and consumes a total power of 580 muW. Utilizing a switched-resonator, the VCO covers a wide switched frequency range of 1.83-2.97 GHz and 4.36-6.17 GHz with measured phase noise of around 112.2 dBc/Hz with 0.29 V supply and 119.7 dBc/Hz with 1 V supply at 1 MHz offset. Since high-frequency bands experience higher phase noise than the low frequency bands, high- short microstrip line inductors have been used for the high-frequency bands. To the best of the authors' knowledge, the reported VCO achieves the widest switched frequency tuning range with lowest core supply voltage.     

Wideband Frequency Synthesizer at X/Ku Band by Mixing and Phase Locking of Half Frequency Output of VCO

A wideband low phase noise frequency synthesizer at X/Ku band has been developed by using phase locking and mixing technique at half frequency of voltage controlled oscillator (VCO). The half frequency output signal of the VCO is down converted by a balanced mixer at C band to obtain an intermediate frequency (IF) signal used for phase locking of the VCO. An ultra low phase noise local signal source at 6 GHz is developed with a frequency multiplying chain driven by a 100 MHz oven controlled crystal oscillator (OCXO). Coupling circuit outside the VCO chip to the mixer does not need to be specially designed, which is beneficial to simplify the circuit scheme and improve the phase noise performance. Measurement results show that the phase noise of the output signal at 10.6 GHz to 11.8 GHz and 12.3 GHz to 13.0 GHz is better than −102 dBc/Hz at 10 kHz away form the carrier center. This frequency synthesizer can be used as local signal source or driving source for the development of wideband millimeter-wave frequency synthesizer systems.     

A Q-band low phase noise monolithic AlGaN/GaN HEMT VCO

A Q-band 40-GHz GaN monolithic microwave integrated circuit voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) based on AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistor technology has been demonstrated. The GaN VCO delivered an output power of +25dBm with phase noise of -92dBc/Hz at 100-KHz offset, and -120dBc/Hz at 1-MHz offset. To the best of our knowledge, this represents the state-of-the-art for GaN VCOs in terms of frequency, output power, and phase noise performance. This work demonstrates the potential for the use of GaN technology for high frequency, high power, and low phase noise frequency sources for military and commercial applications.     

A 1-V 9.7-mW CMOS Frequency Synthesizer for IEEE 802.11a Transceivers

A 1-V CMOS frequency synthesizer is proposed for wireless local area network 802.11a transceivers using a novel transformer-feedback voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) for low voltage and a stacked frequency divider for low power. Implemented in a 0.18-mum CMOS process and operated at 1-V supply, the VCO measures a phase noise of -140.5 dBc at an offset of 20 MHz with a center frequency of 4.26 GHz and a power consumption of 5.17 mW. Its tuning range is as wide as 920 MHz (23%). By integrating the VCO into a frequency synthesizer, a phase noise of -140.1 dBc/Hz at an offset of 20 MHz is measured at a center frequency of 4.26 GHz. Its output frequency can be changed from 4.112 to 4.352 GHz by switching the 3-bit modulus of the programmable divider. The synthesizer consumes only 9.7 mW and occupies a chip area of 1.28 mm².     

A 108-GHz InP-HBT monolithic push-push VCO with low phase noise andwide tuning bandwidth

This paper reports on what is believed to be the highest frequency bipolar voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) so far reported. The W-band VCO is based on a push-push oscillator topology, which employs InP HBT technology with peak f_T's and f_max's of 75 and 200 GHz, respectively. The W-band VCO produces a maximum oscillating frequency of 108 GHz and delivers an output power of +0.92 dBm into 50 Ω. The VCO also obtains a tuning bandwidth of 2.73 GHz or 2.6% using a monolithic varactor. A phase noise of -88 dBc/Hz and -109 dBc/Hz is achieved at 1- and 10-MHz offsets, respectively, and is believed to be the lowest phase noise reported for a monolithic W-band VCO. The push-push VCO design approach demonstrated in this work enables higher VCO frequency operation, lower noise performance, and smaller size, which is attractive for millimeter-wave frequency source applications