A 2.4-GHz low power high performance frequency synthesizer based on current-reuse VCO and symmetric charge pump

This paper presents a low power high performance frequency synthesizer. Based on the current-reuse VCO architecture, the whole system power consumption is significantly saved with excellent phase noise performance. Imbalance amplitude problems caused by the unsymmetrical VCO are solved by the pre-tuning mechanism, which automatically chooses the correct frequency band for the certain frequency channel. Besides, the symmetric charge pump (CP) can minimize the current mismatches and phase offset. The frequency synthesizer is fully integrated in 130-nm CMOS technology consuming 5.8 mW. Measurement results show performance of -130 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset phase noise, 450 fs rms jitter. The reference spur is below -75dB, and it operates successfully with 1Mbps GFSK signals as the two-point modulated transmitter.

[1]  Yi-Chyun Chiang,et al.  Low Phase-Noise and Low-Power CMOS VCO Constructed in Current-Reused Configuration , 2008, IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters.

[2]  Ali Hajimiri,et al.  A general theory of phase noise in electrical oscillators , 1998 .

[3]  Ian Galton,et al.  A Wide-Bandwidth 2.4 GHz ISM Band Fractional-$N$ PLL With Adaptive Phase Noise Cancellation , 2007, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[4]  Sang-Gug Lee,et al.  A 1mW current-reuse CMOS differential LC-VCO with low phase noise , 2005, ISSCC. 2005 IEEE International Digest of Technical Papers. Solid-State Circuits Conference, 2005..

[5]  Sheng-Fuh Chang,et al.  An Amplitude-Balanced Current-Reused CMOS VCO Using Spontaneous Transconductance Match Technique , 2009, IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters.