Phase noise improvement using digitally controlled artificial dielectric

This paper presents a differential Colpitts voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) employing the digitally controlled artificial dielectric to reduce the substrate loss so as to improve the phase noise. This 12GHz VCO has a resonant tank built with transmission lines, and four-layer metal strips placed underneath the transmission lines to form an artificial dielectric. Three-bit control signal applied to an array of MOS switches will program the dielectrics constant. The proposed VCO was fabricated in a 0.13μm BiCMOS SiGe technology, and it achieved a phase noise of -106.7 dBc/Hz at 1MHz offset. The VCO core consumes 6.8mW from a 1.8V power supply.

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