Low Phase Noise sub-1 V Supply 12 and 18 GHz VCOs in 90 nm CMOS

Two low phase noise, sub-1 V supply VCO topologies have been explored at 12 and 18 GHz in a 90 nm CMOS technology for direct LO generation in microwave link applications. At 12 GHz, a cross-coupled differential NMOS pair VCO achieves a phase noise of -117 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset while consuming only 1.6 mW from a 0.47 V supply. At 18 GHz a Hartley VCO with a novel tuning scheme reached -119 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset, consuming 4.2 mW from a 0.8 V supply. The well established VCO FOM is 196 and 199 for the 12 and 18 GHz VCOs, respectively

[1]  Gabriel M. Rebeiz,et al.  A low-noise transformer-based 1.7 GHz CMOS VCO , 2002, 2002 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference. Digest of Technical Papers (Cat. No.02CH37315).

[2]  E. Hegazi,et al.  23.4 A Filtering Technique to Lower Oscillator Phase Noise , 2008 .

[3]  Songcheol Hong,et al.  Ku-band InGaP-GaAs HBT MMIC VCOs with balanced and differential topologies , 2004 .

[4]  P. Soussan,et al.  A low-cost 90nm RF-CMOS platform for record RF circuit performance , 2005, Digest of Technical Papers. 2005 Symposium on VLSI Technology, 2005..

[5]  K. O. Kenneth,et al.  A low-phase-noise and low-power multiband CMOS voltage-controlled oscillator , 2005 .

[6]  H. Jacobsson,et al.  A 25-GHz ultra-low phase noise InGaP/GaAs HBT VCO , 2005, IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters.

[7]  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.

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

[9]  E. Beyne,et al.  Thin-film as enabling passive integration technology for RF SoC and SiP , 2005, ISSCC. 2005 IEEE International Digest of Technical Papers. Solid-State Circuits Conference, 2005..

[10]  G. Le Grand de Mercey.  A 18GHz rotary traveling wave VCO in CMOS with I/Q outputs , 2003 .

[11]  Ali Hajimiri,et al.  Concepts and methods in optimization of integrated LC VCOs , 2001, IEEE J. Solid State Circuits.

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