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).