Performances and trends in millimeter-wave CMOS voltage controlled oscillators

A review on millimeter-wave CMOS voltage controlled oscillators is presented in this paper. Current state of the art implementations are reviewed and their performances are compared. Low power and low phase noise LC-VCO and ring oscillator designs are analyzed and discussed. VCO design and performance trends over the last years are provided and discussed. The review shows how in the higher region of the millimetre-wave frequency spectrum over 60 GHz ring oscillators exhibit performance close and comparable to those achievable by LC-VCOs.

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