RF stress effects on CMOS LC-loaded VCO reliability evaluated by experiments

Abstract A current reused LC voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) operating at 2.4 GHz range has been designed and fabricated. The measured output current, phase noise, and oscillation frequency after RF stress show significant parameter shifts from their fresh circuit condition. Impact of hot carrier effect and negative bias temperature instability on the VCO’s phase noise is discussed.

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