Design of a 24GHz low phase-noise,wide tuning-range VCO with optimized switches in capacitor array and bias filtering technique

A low phase-noise 24GHz VCO (voltage-controlled oscillator) for mm-wave WLANs (wireless LANs) using IBM 90nm CMOS process is presented. A current source is used to minimize the impact due to the process variation. Biasing filter technique is adopted to improve the phase noise performance. In addition, optimized switches are proposed to prevent phase noise degradation. Simulation shows that −101dBc/Hz phase noise is achieved at 1MHz offset. The tuning range of the VCO spans from 24.2GHz to 29.1GHz. Total power consumption of the VCO core is 2.8mW from 0.8V supply.

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