A 1.6-GHz Current-Controlled Oscillator with Integrated Inductor

A 1.6 GHz fully monolithic silicon bipolar LC current-controlledoscillator (CCO) circuit implemented in a 0.8 µmBiCMOS technology and characterized for use in wireless applicationsis presented. The integrated resonator circuit uses high speed(18 GHz) bipolar transistors, a 14 nH rectangular spiral inductorfabricated by using a standard 2-level metallization, and a widebandpn-varactor structure. Additionally, to save chip area, the integratedcapacitors were fabricated below the planar inductor structure.In order to aid the IC design, a simple equivalent circuit modelfor the integrated inductor on silicon was developed and tested.The measured quiescent power dissipation of the integrated CCOcircuit is 1.9 mW to 5.5 mW from a supply of 2–;3 V, anda typical phase noise varies from –82 to –86 dBc/Hz at 100 kHz offset.