Low phase-noise balanced Colpitt InGaP-GaAs HBT VCOs with wide frequency tuning range and small VCO-gain variation

Low phase-noise InGaP-GaAs HBT VCOs, utilizing an on-chip 'wide tuning range varactor', have been designed, fabricated, and characterized. The primary design goals were low phase noise, wide continuous frequency tuning and small VCO- gain variation. Two types of varactor were compared, a square varactor and a finger varactor. The square varactor achieves a frequency tuning of 27%, and the finger varactor 21%. The phase noise is typically -100 dBc/Hz at 100 kHz offset frequency. A VCO gain (sensitivity) of 160 MHz/V is obtained with a variation of less than 10%. The power consumption is controlled by the core DC-current and is of the order 50-100 mW.

[1]  T. Nakamura,et al.  A Wide-tuning-range VCO with Small VCO-gain Fluctuation for Multi-band W-CDMA RFIC , 2006, 2006 Proceedings of the 32nd European Solid-State Circuits Conference.

[3]  Liang-Hung Lu,et al.  A Wide Tuning-Range CMOS VCO With a Differential Tunable Active Inductor , 2006, IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques.

[4]  T. Matsuzuka,et al.  A Millimeter-Wave Highly Linear VCO MMIC with Compact Tuning Voltage Converter , 2006, 2006 European Microwave Conference.

[5]  G. Palmisano,et al.  A low-phase-noise voltage-controlled oscillator for 17-GHz applications , 2006, IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters.

[6]  H. Zirath,et al.  Balanced Colpitt oscillator MMICs designed for ultra-low phase noise , 2005, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[7]  C.A.T. Salama,et al.  A 20-GHz InP-HBT voltage-controlled oscillator with wide frequency tuning range , 2001 .

[8]  C.A.T. Salama,et al.  20-GHz InP-HBT voltage-controlled oscillator with wide tuning range , 2001, 2001 IEEE Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits (RFIC) Symposium (IEEE Cat. No.01CH37173).

[9]  T. Nakamura,et al.  A variable inductor using mutual-current control and application to a SiGe 4.5-GHz VCO for wide tuning range , 2005, 2005 Asia-Pacific Microwave Conference Proceedings.

[10]  I. Toyoda,et al.  Wide-tuning range Si bipolar VCOs based on three-dimensional MMIC technology , 1997 .