Design of 20 GHz high performance LC-VCOs in a 52 GHz fT SiGe: C BiCMOS technology

The design and analysis of fully integrated 20GHz voltage controlled oscillators (VCOs) for low cost and low power communication system are presented in this paper. Two differential topographies have been studied: balanced Colpitts VCO and LC-VCO using a cross-coupled differential pair. We have focused on oscillation frequency, tuning range, phase noise, output power optimization and buffer stage specifications. SiGe:C hetero-junction bipolar transistors of a 52GHz cut-off frequency have been used and produced via a monolithic BiCMOS technology.

[1]  E. van der Heijden,et al.  A 19-23 GHz integrated LC-VCO in a production 70 GHz fT SiGe technology , 2003, ESSCIRC 2004 - 29th European Solid-State Circuits Conference (IEEE Cat. No.03EX705).

[2]  Anders Rydberg,et al.  Measurement of low-frequency base and collector current noise and coherence in SiGe heterojunction bipolar transistors using transimpedance amplifiers , 1999 .

[3]  D. K. Shaeffer,et al.  Performance-optimized microstrip coupled VCOs for 40-GHz and 43-GHz OC-768 optical transmission , 2003, IEEE J. Solid State Circuits.

[4]  Hans-Martin Rein,et al.  SiGe VCOs operating up to 88 GHz, suitable for automotive radar sensors , 2003 .

[5]  H. Rein,et al.  47 GHz VCO with low phase noise fabricated in a SiGe bipolar production technology , 2002, IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters.

[6]  W. Heinrich,et al.  A coplanar 38-GHz SiGe MMIC oscillator , 1996 .

[7]  K.T. Kornegay,et al.  A 25-GHz emitter degenerated LC VCO , 2004, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[8]  W. Heinrich,et al.  Coplanar SiGe VCO MMICs beyond 20 GHz , 2001, 2001 Topical Meeting on Silicon Monolithic Integrated Circuits in RF Systems. Digest of Papers (IEEE Cat. No.01EX496).

[9]  Alvin J. Joseph,et al.  Modeling and characterization of SiGe HBT low-frequency noise figures-of-merit for RFIC applications , 2002 .

[10]  W. Simburger,et al.  Voltage-controlled oscillators up to 98 GHz in SiGe bipolar technology , 2004, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[11]  B. Heinemann,et al.  60GHz and 76GHz oscillators in 0.25/spl mu/m SiGe:C BiCMOS , 2003, 2003 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference, 2003. Digest of Technical Papers. ISSCC..

[12]  B. Heinemann,et al.  LC-oscillators above 100 GHz in silicon-based technology , 2004, Proceedings of the 30th European Solid-State Circuits Conference.

[13]  Monolithic 26 GHz and 40 GHz VCOs with SiGe heterojunction bipolar transistor , 1995, Proceedings of International Electron Devices Meeting.

[14]  M. Steyaert,et al.  A 1.8 GHz highly-tunable low-phase-noise CMOS VCO , 2000, Proceedings of the IEEE 2000 Custom Integrated Circuits Conference (Cat. No.00CH37044).

[15]  Hans-Martin Rein,et al.  Millimeter-wave VCOs with wide tuning range and low phase noise, fully integrated in a SiGe bipolar production technology , 2003, IEEE J. Solid State Circuits.

[16]  H.-M. Rein,et al.  Fully integrated SiGe VCOs with powerful output buffer for 77-GHz automotive Radar systems and applications around 100 GHz , 2004, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[17]  Michiel Steyaert,et al.  Low-noise voltage-controlled oscillators using enhanced LC-tanks , 1995 .

[18]  A. Wagemans,et al.  A 3.5 mW 2.5 GHz diversity receiver and a 1.2 mW 3.6 GHz VCO in silicon-on-anything , 1998, 1998 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference. Digest of Technical Papers, ISSCC. First Edition (Cat. No.98CH36156).

[19]  D. Marchesan,et al.  A family of monolithic inductor-varactor SiGe-HBT VCOs for 20 GHz to 30 GHz LMDS and fiber-optic receiver applications , 2000, 2000 IEEE Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits (RFIC) Symposium Digest of Papers (Cat. No.00CH37096).

[20]  Mingquan Bao,et al.  A 21.5/43-GHz dual-frequency balanced Colpitts VCO in SiGe technology , 2004, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[21]  Arpad L. Scholtz,et al.  A 28-GHz monolithic integrated quadrature oscillator in SiGe bipolar technology , 2003 .