A CMOS self-calibrating frequency synthesizer

A programmable phase-locked-loop (PLL)-based frequency synthesizer, capable of automatically adjusting the nominal center frequency of the voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) to an optimum value is described. In fully integrated PLLs, the VCO output frequency should be tunable over a wide range of frequencies, covering the desired range of the synthesizer output frequencies, for all processing variations and operating conditions. A wide tuning range realized by making the VCO gain K_o large has the unwanted effect of increasing the phase noise at the output of the VCO, and hence the PLL as well. In this work, the wide tuning range is realized by digital control, with process variability managed through self-calibration. The PLL is only required to pull the oscillator output frequency to account for the digital quantization, temperature variations, and some margin. This allows the K _o to be small, with better noise performance resulting. The prototype self-calibrating frequency synthesizer, capable of operating from 80 MHz to 1 GHz, demonstrates a measured absolute jitter of 20-ps rms at 480-MHz operating frequency. The prototype IC is fabricated in a 0.35-μm 3-V digital CMOS process     

An ultra-low power ISM-band integer-N frequency synthesizer dedicated to implantable medical microsystems

In this article, the architectural choices and design of a fully integrated integer-N frequency synthesizer operating in the 902–928 MHz Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM) band is presented. This frequency synthesizer, optimized for ultra-low power operation, is being integrated in the transceiver of an implantable wireless sensing microsystem (IWSM), which is dedicated to in vivo monitoring of biological parameters such as temperature, pressure, pH, oxygen, and nitric oxide concentrations. This phase-locked loop-based synthesizer includes a 1.830 GHz LC voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) using a 10 nH on chip inductor. Varactors are implemented using P+ in N-well diodes for their linearity and high quality factor. The transistors of the VCO are operated in moderate inversion, and their bias point was chosen using the g _m/I _d design methodology. The output of the VCO, operating at twice the ISM frequency band, is divided by 2 to generate differential, quadrature versions of the carrier. Power minimization of the programmable divider was achieved by designing the latches and flip-flops using appropriate circuit techniques such as True Single Phase Clocking (TSPC) and first-type Dynamic Single Transistor Clocking (DSTC1) depending on their operating frequency. The power consumption of the proposed synthesizer is 580 μW under 1 V; almost an order of magnitude lower compared to that of recent synthesizer designs having a similar architecture.     

80-GHz differential VCO in InP SHBTs

A high frequency millimeter-wave voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) has been designed, manufactured and tested in InP single heterojunction bipolar transistor technology. The fully integrated fundamental differential VCO features high operating frequency up to 80 GHz with low phase noise about -118 dBc/Hz at 1-MHz offset and 5% tuning range. The VCO consumes only 95-mW power at a power supply of -5 V, while providing -2 dBm single-ended output power and 1 dBm for differential output power. The die size is 0.28 mm/sup 2/.     

A K-band InGaP/GaAs HBT balanced MMIC VCO

A fully integrated K-band balanced voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) is presented. The VCO is realized using a commercially available InGaP/GaAs heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) technology with an f/sub T/ of 60 GHz and an f/sub MAX/ of 110 GHz. To generate negative resistance at mm-wave frequencies, common base inductive feedback topology is used. The VCO provides an oscillation frequency from 21.90 GHz to 22.33 GHz. The frequency tuning range is about 430 MHz. The peak output power is -0.3 dBm. The phase noise is -108.2 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset at an operating frequency of 22.33 GHz. The chip area is 0.84/spl times/1.00 mm/sup 2/.     

A Dual-Band CMOS Voltage-Controlled Oscillator Implemented With Dual-Resonance LC Tank

A new fully integrated, dual-band CMOS voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) is presented. The VCO is composed of n-core cross-coupled Colpitts VCOs and was implemented in 0.18 $mu$m CMOS technology with 0.8 V supply voltage. The circuit allows the VCO to operate at two resonant frequencies with a common LC tank. The VCO has two control inputs, one for continuous control of the output frequency and one for band switching. This VCO is configured with 5 GHz and 12 GHz frequency bands with differential outputs. The dual-band VCO operates in 4.78–5.19 GHz and 12.19–12.61 GHz. The phase noises of the VCO operating at 5.11 and 12.2 GHz are ${-}117.16$ dBc/Hz and ${-}112.15$ dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset, respectively, while the VCO draws 3.2/2.72 mA and 2.56/2.18 mW consumption at low/high frequency band from a 0.8 V supply.      

Wide tuning-range CMOS VCO based on a tunable active inductor

In this paper, a wide tuning-range CMOS voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) with high output power using an active inductor circuit is presented. In this VCO design, the coarse frequency is achieved by tuning the integrated active inductor. The circuit has been simulated using a 0.18-µm CMOS fabrication process and presents output frequency range from 100 MHz to 2.5 GHz, resulting in a tuning range of 96%. The phase noise is –85 dBc/Hz at a 1 MHz frequency offset. The output power is from –3 dBm at 2.55 GHz to +14 dBm at 167 MHz. The active inductor power dissipation is 6.5 mW and the total power consumption is 16.27 mW when operating on a 1.8 V supply voltage. By comparing this active inductor architecture VCO with general VCO topology, the result shows that this topology, which employs the proposed active inductor, produces a better performance.     

Low phase noise IP VCO for multistandard communication using a 0.35-/spl mu/m BiCMOS SiGe technology

In this letter, we report that a commonly used 0.35-/spl mu/m, 60-GHz-F/sub MAX/ BiCMOS SiGe monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) technology is able to provide very low phase noise signal generation in the X-band frequency range. This statement has been demonstrated using a differential LC voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) in which varactors are realized with metal-oxide semiconductor (MOS) transistors and inductors with a patterned ground shield technology. This VCO features an output power signal in the range of -5 dBm and exhibits a phase noise of -96 dBc/Hz at a frequency offset of 100kHz from carrier and -120 dBc/Hz at a frequency offset of 1 MHz. The VCO features a tuning range of 430 MHz or 4.3% of its operating frequency. Its power consumption is in the range of 70 mW (200 mW with buffers circuits) for a chip size of 800/spl times/1000 /spl mu/m/sup 2/ (including RF probe pads).     

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     

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 1.8-V 2.4/5.15-GHz dual-band LCVCO in 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS technology

A dual band, fully integrated, low phase-noise and low-power LC voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) operating at the 2.4-GHz industrial scientific and medical band and 5.15-GHz unlicensed national information infrastructure band has been demonstrated in an 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS process. At 1.8-V power supply voltage, the power dissipation is only 5.4mW for a 2.4-GHz band and 8mW for a 5.15-GHz band. The proposed VCO features phase-noise of -135dBc/Hz at 3-MHz offset frequency away from the carrier frequency of 2.74GHz and -126dBc/Hz at 3-MHz offset frequency away from 5.49GHz. The oscillator is tuned from 2.2 to 2.85GHz in the low band (2.4-GHz band) and from 4.4 to 5.7GHz in the high band (5.15-GHz band).     

A 900-MHz 1.5-V CMOS voltage-controlled oscillator using switched resonators with a wide tuning range

A 900-MHz fully integrated VCO was fabricated in a 0.18-/spl mu/m foundry CMOS process. Under 1.5 V power supply, this VCO can be tuned from 667 MHz to 1156 MHz which corresponds to a 53.6% tuning range. The VCO has nearly constant phase noise over the whole tuning frequency, credit to the switched resonators used in this VCO. The phase noise at a 600 kHz offset is -123.1 dBc/Hz at 1125 MHz center frequency and -124.2 dBc/Hz at 667 MHz center frequency.     

基于0.35μm SiGe BiCMOS的2.5GHz低相位噪声LC压控振荡器的设计

介绍了一个基于0.35μm SiGe BiCMOS工艺的2.5GHz低相位噪声LC压控振荡器.文章重新定义了压控振荡器工作区域.分析表明谐振回路的电感值和偏置电流对振荡器的相噪优化有重要的影响.本文同时分析了CMOS和BJT压控振荡器设计思路的不同.本设计中,采用键合线来实现谐振回路中的电感来进一步提高相噪性能.该VCO和其他模块集成在一起实现了一个环路带宽为30kHz的频率综合器.测试结果表明,当中心频率为2.5GHz时,在100kHz和1MHz的频偏处相噪分别为-95dBc/Hz和-116dBc/Hz.工作电压为3V时,VCO核心电路的电流消耗为8mA.据我们所知,这是国内第一个采用SiGe BiCMOS工艺的差分压控振荡器.     

Novel 53/106 GHz Dual-Band MMW LC Oscillator Implemented in SiGe BiCMOS Technology

In this Paper, we present a fully integrated millimeter wave LC voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO), which employs a novel topology, operating at dual-band frequency of 53.22 GHz-band and 106.44 GHz-band. The low-phase noise performance of ?107.3 dBc/Hz and ?106.1 dBc/Hz at the offset frequency of 600 kHz, ?111.8 dBc/Hz and ?110.6 dBc/Hz at the offset frequency of 1 MHz around 53.22 GHz and 106.44 GHz are achieved using IBM BiCMOS-6HP technology, respectively. Two tuning ranges, of 52.7 - 53.8 GHz and 105.4 - 107.6 GHz for the proposed LC VCO are obtained. The output voltage swing of this VCO is around 1.8 V_p-p at the operation frequency of 53.22 GHz and 0.45 V_p-p at 106.44 GHz; the total power consumption is about 16.5 mW. To our knowledge, this is the first oscillator which operates at dual-band frequency above 50 GHz with the best preformance.     

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...     

LC voltage controlled oscillator in 0.18-μm RF CMOS

An integrated low-phase-noise voltage-controlled oscillator(VCO) has been designed and fabricated in SMIC 0.18μm RF CMOS technology.The circuit employs an optimally designed LC resonator and a differential cross-coupling amplifier acts as a negative resistor to compensate the energy loss of the resonator.To extend the frequency tuning range,a three-bit binary-weighted switched capacitor array is used in the circuit.The testing result indicates that the VCO achieves a tuning range of 60%from 1.92 to 3.35 GHz.The phase noise of the VCO is -117.8 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset from the carrier frequency of 2.4 GHz.It draws 5.6 mA current from a 1.8 V supply.The VCO integrated circuit occupies a die area of 600×900μm~2.It can be used in the IEEE802.11 b based wireless local network receiver.     

Compact InP-based HBT VCOs with a wide tuning range at W- andD-band

Compact monolithic integrated differential voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs) operating in W-band were realized using InP-based heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs). The oscillators, with a total chip size of 0.6 by 0.35 mm², are based on a balanced Colpitts-type topology with a coplanar transmission-line resonator. By varying the voltage across the base-collector junction of the HBT in the current mirror and by changing the current in the VCO, the oscillation frequency can be tuned between 84 and 106 GHz. At 100 GHz, a differential voltage swing of 400 mV is obtained, which should be sufficient to drive 100 Gb/s digital logic. By combining the balanced outputs of a similar differential VCO in a push-push configuration, a compact source with close to -10 dBm output power and a tuning range between 138 and 150 GHz is obtained     

The development of nonradiative dielectric waveguide transmitting front-end in Ka-band

The operating theory,design method and experimental results of the nonradiative dielectric waveguide (NRD-guide) transmitting front-end in millimeter wave band are related in details in this paper. As a kind of dielectric waveguide,the NRD-guide possesses fine transmission performances, and it can be used to fabricate the millimeter wave hyterodyne integrated circuits. The two kinds NRD-guide transmitting front-ends substantiated in the paper, the voltage controlling oscillator(VCO) and twin-Gunn-diode power-combiner,have very similar structures to each other and possess compact sizes, fine machinery and electric performances.For the VCO front-end in Ka-band, the frequency modulation band is greater than 150MHz, the output power is larger than 20mW.For the power-combiner, the output power is larger than 40mW,the combination efficiency is better than 90%,the frequency stabilization reaches 1.68×10^?5. Combined with the receiving front-end reported before,the transmitter and receiver can be composed to a dielectric waveguide R/T module to be applied in some millimeter wave sub-systems.     

一个8GHz高功率AlGaN/GaN HEMT VCO

基于中科院微电子所的AlGaN/GaN HEMT工艺研制了一个X波段高功率混合集成压控振荡器（VCO）。电路采用源端调谐的负阻型结构,主谐振腔由开路微带和短路微带并联构成,实现高Q值设计。在偏置条件为VD=20V, VG=-1.9V, ID=150mA时,VCO在中心频率8.15 GHz处输出功率达到28 dBm,效率21%,相位噪声-85 dBc/Hz@100 KHz,-128 dBc/Hz@1 MHz。调谐电压0~5V时,调谐范围50 MHz。分析了器件闪烁噪声对GaN HEMT基振荡器相位噪声性能的主导作用。测试结果显示了AlGaN/GaN HEMT工艺在高功率低噪声微波频率源中的应用前景。     

Impact of low-frequency substrate disturbances on a 4.5 GHz VCO

This paper presents the impact of low-frequency substrate disturbances on a fully integrated voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) spectrum. A 4.5 GHz VCO test-chip is presented; two substrate taps are placed inside the VCO core to measure or to inject disturbances into the substrate. The VCO carrier frequency sensitivity function of the tuning voltage and the bias current are measured. Then, the VCO spurious side-bands caused by harmonic substrate noise disturbances are analyzed to find a relation between the substrate noise characteristics and spur magnitudes. Theoretically the impulse sensitivity function (ISF) approach is used to analyze device sensitivity to substrate noise. Finally, a significant link between device sensitivity functions, low-frequency substrate disturbances and the VCO side-band spectral power, is demonstrated. According to this study, we conclude that a global approach which only considers power supply bounces in mixed IC's is not sufficient to analyze the sensitivity of RF integrated oscillators to low frequency substrate noise.     

A low-power ka-band Voltage-controlled oscillator implemented in 200-GHz SiGe HBT technology

An integrated low-power low phase-noise Ka-band differential voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) is developed in a 0.12-/spl mu/m 200-GHz silicon-germanium heterojunction bipolar transistor technology. The use of line inductors instead of transmission lines is demonstrated to be feasible in LC-tuned resonators for Ka-band applications. This VCO can operate from a supply voltage of 1.6-2.5 V. A single-sideband phase noise of -99 dBc/Hz at 1-MHz offset from the carrier frequency of 33 GHz is achieved, together with a VCO figure-of-merit of -183.7 dBc/Hz. The frequency tuning constant of the VCO in the linear regime is -0.547 GHz/V.