A Compact Mm-Wave Multi-Band VCO Based on Triple-Mode Resonator for 5G and Beyond

We present a low phase noise four-core triple-band voltage controlled-oscillator (VCO) with reconfigurable oscillator cores and multi-mode resonator. By activation/deactivation of oscillator cores and change of resonator impedance in three modes of operations, the proposed VCO provides complete freedom in selecting the resonance frequency for three operation bands in the mm-wave range. The proposed four-core triple-band VCO is implemented in a 65 nm CMOS process using a compact high-Q triple-mode resonator. The VCO oscillation frequencies center at 19,28, and 38 GHz while providing good phase noise and low power consumption in all bands. Measured results show the total frequency tuning range (FTR) of 38.5% while the PN at 1MHz offset varies from −100.3dBc/Hz to −106.06 dBc/Hz resulting in an excellent $\mathrm{FoM}_{\mathrm{T}}$ of 199.8 dBc/Hz.