A Ku-band low-phase-noise transformer coupled VCO for satellite communications

A Ku-band voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) with a low phase noise is presented in this paper. By increasing the third-harmonic of the fundamental frequency, the transformer-based topology can enforce a pseudo-square voltage waveform in the LC tank to reduce the phase noise. Implemented in a 90-nm standard CMOS technology, the VCO exhibits an average phase noise of -117.2 dc/Hz at 1 MHz offset over a 9.5-11.7 GHz tuning range. The oscillator only occupies 0.2 mm2 while drawing 13.3 mA from the 1.2-V power supply, and the achieved FoM is 185.4 dBc/Hz. The proposed VCO is suitable for applications of satellite communications.

[1]  P. Wambacq,et al.  A Compact Wideband Front-End Using a Single-Inductor Dual-Band VCO in 90 nm Digital CMOS , 2008, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[2]  Bumman Kim,et al.  A low phase-noise CMOS VCO with harmonic tuned LC tank , 2006, IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques.

[3]  Ramesh Harjani,et al.  A 52% tuning range QVCO with a reduced noise coupling scheme and a minimum FOMT of 196dBc/Hz , 2014, Proceedings of the IEEE 2014 Custom Integrated Circuits Conference.

[4]  C. Yue,et al.  On-chip Spiral Inductors With Patterned Ground Shields For Si-based RF IC's , 1997, Symposium 1997 on VLSI Circuits.

[5]  Zhihua Wang,et al.  An 8.2 GHz triple coupling low-phase-noise class-F QVCO in 65nm CMOS , 2015, ESSCIRC Conference 2015 - 41st European Solid-State Circuits Conference (ESSCIRC).

[6]  Bumman Kim,et al.  A low phase-noise CMOS VCO with harmonic tuned LC tank , 2006 .

[7]  Robert B. Staszewski,et al.  Third-harmonic injection technique applied to a 5.87-to-7.56GHz 65nm CMOS Class-F oscillator with 192dBc/Hz FOM , 2013, 2013 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference Digest of Technical Papers.

[8]  Nai-Chung Kuo,et al.  A 26-GHz low-phase-error in-phase-coupled QVCO using modified bi-directional diodes , 2014, 2014 IEEE Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits Symposium.

[9]  A. Mazzanti,et al.  Class-C Harmonic CMOS VCOs, With a General Result on Phase Noise , 2008, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.