Low noise 5 GHz differential VCO using InGaP/GaAs HBT technology

The authors present the first InGaP/GaAs HBT differential VCOs with low phase noise performance. One is a cross coupled differential VCO, and the other is a Colpitts differential VCO. To achieve a fully integrated VCO, collector-base junction capacitance of HBT transistor is used for the frequency tuning varactor. The measured output frequency ranges of VCOs are 290 MHz and 190 MHz, and the phase noises at an offset frequency of 1 MHz are -118 dBc/Hz and -117 dBc/Hz respectively. The each VCO core dissipates 13.2 mW from a 3.5 V supply, and the output power is about -0.2 dBm. Concerned with cross coupled VCO, it shows the figure of merit of -179 dBc/Hz, which is the best result among the reported compound semiconductor FET and HBT VCOs.

[1]  P. Kinget,et al.  A fully integrated 2.7 V 0.35 /spl mu/m CMOS VCO for 5 GHz wireless applications , 1998, 1998 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference. Digest of Technical Papers, ISSCC. First Edition (Cat. No.98CH36156).

[2]  A. Hajimiri,et al.  A CMOS differential noise-shifting Colpitts VCO , 2002, 2002 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference. Digest of Technical Papers (Cat. No.02CH37315).

[3]  Yannis Papananos,et al.  A 5 GHz fully integrated VCO in a SiGe bipolar technology , 2000, 2000 IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems. Emerging Technologies for the 21st Century. Proceedings (IEEE Cat No.00CH36353).

[4]  Salvatore Levantino,et al.  A -94 dBc/Hz@100 kHz, fully-integrated, 5-GHz, CMOS VCO with 18% tuning range for Bluetooth applications , 2001, Proceedings of the IEEE 2001 Custom Integrated Circuits Conference (Cat. No.01CH37169).

[5]  Chinchun Meng,et al.  A 5.7 GHz interpolative VCO using InGaP/GaAs HBT technology , 2002 .

[6]  M. Soyuer,et al.  A fully-monolithic SiGe differential voltage-controlled oscillator for 5 GHz wireless applications , 2000, 2000 IEEE Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits (RFIC) Symposium Digest of Papers (Cat. No.00CH37096).

[7]  K. Pressel,et al.  A current-folded up-conversion mixer and VCO with center-tapped inductor in a SiGe-HBT technology for 5-GHz wireless LAN applications , 2000, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[8]  Patrice Senn,et al.  5 GHz Monolithic VCO with prescaler using BiCMOS SiGe technology , 2000, 2000 30th European Microwave Conference.