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.     

SiGe Bipolar VCO With Ultra-Wide Tuning Range at 80 GHz Center Frequency

A SiGe millimeter-wave VCO with a center frequency around 80 GHz and an extremely wide (continuous) tuning range of 24.5 GHz ( ap 30%) is presented. The phase noise at 1 MHz offset is -97 dBc/Hz at the center frequency (and less than -94 dBc/Hz in a frequency range of 21 GHz). The maximum total output power is about 12 dBm. A cascode buffer improves decoupling from the output load at reasonable VCO power consumption (240 mW at 5 V supply voltage). A low-power frequency divider (operating up to 100 GHz) provides, in addition, a divided-by-four signal. As a further intention of this paper, the basic reasons for the limitation of the tuning range in millimeter-wave VCOs are shown and the improvement by using two (instead of one) varactor pairs is demonstrated.     

A 0.7 V 6.66–9.36 GHz wide tuning range CMOS LC VCO with small chip size

The circuit designs are based on TSMC 0.18 μm CMOS standard technology model. The designed circuit uses transformer coupling technology in order to decrease chip area and increase the Q value. The switched-capacitor topology array enables the voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) to be tuned between 6.66 and 9.36 GHz with 4.9 mW power consumption at supply voltage of 0.7 V, and the tuning range of the circuit can reach 33.7%. The measured phase noise is ?110.5 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset from the carrier frequency of 7.113 GHz. The output power level is about ?1.22 dBm. The figure-of-merit and figure-of-merit-with-tuning range of the VCO are about ?180.7 and ?191.25 dBc/Hz, respectively. The chip area is 0.429 mm² excluding the pads. The presented ultra-wideband VCO leads to a better performance in terms of power consumption, tuning range, chip size and output power level for low supply voltage.     

A 21 GHz Complementary Transformer Coupled CMOS VCO

A new topology for low power voltage controlled oscillators (VCOs) using a 0.18-mum CMOS foundry process is presented in this letter. From the measured results, the VCO exhibits a tuning range of 3% at 21.3 GHz. Using complementary topology, the core power consumption and the output power are 9.6 mW and -3 dBm, respectively. With the broadside coupled transformer, the VCO achieves a good phase noise of -106 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset and a compact chip size of 350 times 470 mum². It is the first time that the broadside coupled transformer approach is applied to transformer coupled CMOS VCOs.     

A 50-GHz Phase-Locked Loop in 0.13-μ m CMOS

A 50-GHz charge pump phase-locked loop (PLL) utilizing an LC-oscillator-based injection-locked frequency divider (ILFD) was fabricated in 0.13-mum logic CMOS process. The PLL can be locked from 45.9 to 50.5 GHz and output power level is around -10 dBm. The operating frequency range is increased by tracking the self-oscillation frequencies of the voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) and the frequency divider. The PLL including buffers consumes 57 mW from 1.5/0.8-V supplies. The phase noise at 50 kHz, 1 MHz, and 10 MHz offset from the carrier is -63.5, -72, and -99 dBc/Hz, respectively. The PLL also outputs second-order harmonics at frequencies between 91.8 and 101 GHz. The output frequency of 101 GHz is the highest for signals locked by a PLL fabricated using the silicon integrated circuits technology.     

一种双带宽UHF主从耦合式LC VCO

为了满足无线通信系统应用需要,设计了一种主从耦合式LC压控振荡器(VCO).基于0.18 μm CMOS标准工艺,由一个5 GHz主VCO和两个起分频作用的从VCO组成,其中主VCO选用PMOS考毕兹差分振荡结构,在两个互补交叉耦合的从VCO的输出端之间设置有注入式NMOS器件以达到分频的目的.仿真及硬件电路实验结果表明,在1.8 V低电源电压下,5 GHz主VCO的调谐范围为4.68～5.76 GHz,2.5 GHz从VCO的调谐范围为2.32～2.84 GHz;在1 MHz的偏频下,5 GHz主VCO的相位噪声为118.2 dBc/Hz,2.5 GHz从VCO的相位噪声为124.4 dBc/Hz.另外,主从VCO的功耗分别为6.8 mW和7.9 mW,因此特别适用于低功耗、超高频短距离无线通信系统中.     

A 5-GHz CMOS Frequency Synthesizer With an Injection-Locked Frequency Divider and Differential Switched Capacitors

A phase-locked loop (PLL)-based frequency synthesizer at 5 GHz is designed and fabricated in 0.18-${rm mu}hbox{m}$ CMOS technology. The power consumption of the synthesizer is significantly reduced by using an injection-locked frequency divider (ILFD) as the first frequency divider in the PLL feedback loop. The synthesizer chip consumes 18 mW of power, of which only 3.93 mW is consumed by the voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) and the ILFD at 1.8-V supply voltage. The VCO has the phase noise of $-$ 104 dBc/Hz at 1-MHz offset and an output tuning range of 740 MHz. The chip size is 1.1 mm $times$ 0.95 mm.      

8.64-11.62 GHz CMOS VCO and divider in a zero-IF 802.11a/b/g WLAN and Bluetooth application

A fully integrated VCO and divider implemented in SMIC 0.13-μm RFCMOS 1P8M technology with a 1.2 V supply voltage is presented.The frequency of the VCO is tuning from 8.64 to 11.62 GHz while the quadrature LO signals for 802.11a WLAN in 5.8 GHz band or for 802.11b/g WLAN and Bluetooth in 2.4 GHz band can be obtained by a frequency division by 2 or 4,respectively.A 6 bit switched capacitor array is applied for precise tuning of all necessary frequency bands.The testing results show that the VCO has a phas...     

A Low-Voltage Quadrature CMOS VCO Based on Voltage-Voltage Feedback Topology

A novel low-voltage quadrature voltage-controlled oscillator (QVCO) with voltage feedback to the input gate of a switching amplifier is proposed and implemented using the standard TSMC 0.18-mum CMOS 1P6M process. The proposed circuit topology is made up of two low-voltage LC-tank VCOs, where the coupled QVCO is obtained using the transformer coupling technique. At the 0.7-V supply voltage, the output phase noise of the VCO is -124.9 dBc/Hz at 1-MHz offset frequency from the carrier frequency of 2.4GHz, and the figure of merit is -185.35dBc/Hz. Total power consumption is 5.18 mW. Tuning range is about 135 MHz while the control voltage was tuned from 0 to 0.7V     

Low-power divide-by-3 injection-locked frequency dividers implemented with injection transformers

A new divide-by-3 injection-locked frequency divider (ILFD) is proposed. The ILFD consists of a 7.6 GHz voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) and two transformers, which are in series with the crosscoupled transistors in the VCO for signal injection. The proposed CMOS ILFD has been implemented with the TSMC 0.13 μm CMOS technology. At the supply voltage of 0.8 V, the core power consumption is 1.25 mW, and the free-running frequency of the ILFD is tunable from 7.2 to 7.87 GHz. At the input power of 0 dBm, the total divide-by-3 locking range is from 21.56 to 23.63 GHz as the tuning voltage is varied from 0.0 to 0.8 V. The phase noise of the locked ILFD output is lower than that of the free-running ILFD in the divide-by-3 mode.     

A 75 GHz regenerative dynamic frequency divider with active transformer using InGaAs/InP HBT technology

This letter presents a high speed 2:1 regenerative dynamic frequency divider with an active transformer fabricated in 0.7 μm InP DHBT technology with f_T of 165 GHz and f_max of 230 GHz. The circuit includes a two-stage active transformer, input buffer, divider core and output buffer. The core part of the frequency divider is composed of a double-balanced active mixer (widely known as the Gilbert cell) and a regenerative feedback loop. The active transformer with two stages can contribute to positive gain and greatly improve phase difference. Instead of the passive transformer, the active one occupies a much smaller chip area. The area of the chip is only 469×414 μm² and it entirely consumes a total DC power of only 94.6 mW from a single -4.8 V DC supply. The measured results present that the divider achieves an operating frequency bandwidth from 75 to 80 GHz, and performs a -23 dBm maximum output power at 37.5 GHz with a 0 dBm input signal of 75 GHz.     

Ultra-Low-Voltage 20-GHz Frequency Dividers Using Transformer Feedback in 0.18-$mu$ m CMOS Process

This paper presents the design and analysis of ultra- low-voltage (ULV) high-frequency dividers using transformer feedback. Specifically, a differential-input differential-output injection-locked (IL) divider topology with transformer feedback and a wideband transformer-coupled (TC) divider with quadrature outputs are demonstrated, both of which can operate well at supply voltages as low as the device's threshold voltages. Fabricated in a standard 0.18-mum CMOS process, the ULV-IL divider measures an input frequency range from 16.1 GHz to 20 GHz while consuming a total power from 2.75 mW to 4.35 mW at 0.5 V supply, and the TC-divider measures an input frequency range of 27.8% from 15.1 GHz to 20 GHz with IQ sideband rejection of - 31 dBc while consuming power from 11.4 mW to 13.6 mW at 0.6 V supply.     

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     

A 1?mW power-efficient high frequency CML 2:1 divider

In this study, a low power high operating frequency current mode logic (CML) 2:1 divider is presented. Because the latching transistor pair is biased in low current mode, the proposed divider is power-saving. In this divider, each latch has only one clock transistor, which means that the capacitive load to the former stages is reduced. This makes the buffer of the voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) or VCO be easily designed in phase locked loops. Besides, an active inductor is used in this circuit to resonate with parasitic capacitances and thus endows this topology a high-speed capability. The measurement results indicate that the proposed divider achieves an operation band from 10 to 15?GHz with only 1mW power dissipation.     

A 6-GHz capacitively-coupled Colpitts CMOS quadrature voltage controlled oscillator

In this work a new low-noise low-power Colpitts quadrature voltage controlled oscillator (QVCO) made by coupling two identical current-switching differential Colpitts voltage controlled oscillators (VCO) is proposed; coupling of the VCOs is done using some capacitors in an “in-phase anti-phase” scheme. In this coupling configuration first harmonics (as well as higher harmonics) from each VCO are injected to the other VCO, as opposed to coupling schemes in which only even harmonics are injected. An analysis of the linearized circuit which confirms 90° phase difference between output signals of the proposed circuit is presented. Since no extra noise sources or power consumption are introduced to the core VCOs, the proposed QVCO achieves low phase noise performance and low power consumption. The proposed circuit is designed and simulated in a commercial 0.18 μm CMOS technology. The simulated phase noise of the proposed QVCO at 3 MHz offset frequency is ?138.3 dBc/Hz, at 6 GHz. The circuit dissipates 8.16 mW from a 1.8 V supply and its frequency can be tuned from 5.6 to 6.3 GHz.     

A fully integrated 5.8 GHz U-NII band 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS VCO

A fully integrated 5.8 GHz CMOS L-C tank voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) using a 0.18-/spl mu/m 1P6M standard CMOS process for 5 GHz U-NII band WLAN application is presented. The VCO core circuit uses only PMOS to pursue a better phase noise performance since it has less 1/f noise than NMOS. The measurement is performed by using a FR-4 PCB test fixture. The output frequency of the VCO is from 5860 to 6026 MHz with a 166 MHz tuning range and the phase noise is -96.9 dBc/Hz at 300 kHz (or -110 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz) with V ctrl = 0 V. The power consumption of the VCO excluding buffer amplifiers is 8.1 mW at V/sub DD/ = 1.8 V and the output power is -4 dBm.     

Colpitts Injection-Locked Frequency Divider Implemented With a 3-D Helical Transformer

This letter proposes a wide locking range and low power complementary Colpitts injection-locked frequency divider (ILFD) employing a 3-D helical transformer. The proposed ILFD consists of two single-ended complementary Colpitts oscillators coupled by a 3-D transformer to form a differential oscillator. The aim of using the 3-D transformer is to reduce chip size. The divide-by-2 LC-tank ILFD is implemented by adding an injection nMOS between the differential outputs of the voltage controlled oscillator. The measurement results show that at the supply voltage of 1.8 V, the divider free-running frequency is tunable from 4.24 to 4.8 GHz. At the incident power of 0 dBm, vtune=0.9 V, and V _DD=1.5 V, the locking range is about 2.4 GHz (26.9%), from the incident frequency 7.7 to 10.1 GHz. The core power consumption is 3.9 mW. The die area is 0.548times 0.656 mm².     

A 5.6 GHz Low Power Balanced VCO in 0.18 $mu$m CMOS

A 5.6 GHz balanced voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) is designed and implemented in a 0.18 mum CMOS 1P6M process. It consists of two single-ended complementary Colpitts LC-tank VCOs coupled by two pairs of varactors. At the supply voltage of 1.2 V, the output phase noise of the VCO is -119.13 dBc/Hz at 1MHz offset frequency from the carrier frequency of 5.6 GHz, and the figure of merit is -190.29 dBc/Hz. Total VCO core power consumption is 2.4 mW. Tuning range is about 600 MHz, from 5.36 to 5.96 GHz, while the control voltage was tuned from 0 to 1.2 V.     

A low-phase-noise and low-power multiband CMOS voltage-controlled oscillator

A low voltage multiband all-pMOS VCO was fabricated in a 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS process. By using a combination of inductor and capacitor switching, four band (2.4, 2.5, 4.7, and 5 GHz) operation was realized using a single VCO. The VCO with an 1-V power supply has phase noises at 1-MHz offset from a 4.7-GHz carrier of -126 dBc/Hz and -134 dBc/Hz from a 2.4-GHz carrier. The VCO consumes 4.6 mW at 2.4 and 2.5 GHz, and 6 mW at 4.7 and 5 GHz, respectively. At 4.7 GHz, the VCO also achieves -80 dBc/Hz phase noise at 10-kHz offset with 2 mW power consumption.     

A low-voltage,low power divide-by-4 LC-tank injection-locked frequency divider

A low-voltage wide locking range injection-locked frequency divider (ILFD) using a standard 0.18?µm complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor process is presented. The ILFD is based on a differential LC VCO with one injection metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) for coupling external signals to the resonator. The low-voltage operation and wide locking range is obtained by boosting the gate voltage swing of the ILFD. Measurements show that at the supply voltage of 0.67?V, the divider's free-running frequency is tunable from 3.91 to 4.22?GHz, and the core power consumption is 1.87?mW. At the incident power of 0?dBm the divide-by-4 operation range is about 2?GHz (12.3%), from the incident frequency 15.3–17.3?GHz. The divide-by-2 locking range is about 5.1?GHz (77%), from the incident frequency 4.1–9.2?GHz.