A linear, ultra wideband, low‐power, 2.1–5 GHz, VCO

A linear, Ultra Wideband, low-power VCO, suitable for UWB-FM applications is proposed, forming the main part of a UWB-FM transmitter. The VCO is designed in TSMC 90thinspacenm digital CMOS process and includes a Source-Coupled Multivibrator, used as current-controlled oscillator (CCO) which generates output frequencies between 2.1 and 5 GHz and a voltage-to-current (V-to-I) converter which translates the VCO input voltage modulation signal to current. Two single-ended inverter buffers are employed to drive either a differential or a single-ended UWB antenna. The presented VCO is designed for 1 V power supply and exhibits a linear tuning range of 2.1–5 GHz, a differential output power of −7.83 dBm±0.78 dB and low power consumption of 8.26 mW, including the output buffers, at the maximum oscillation frequency. It is optimized for a very high ratio of tuning range (81.69%) over power consumption equal to 9.95 dB. The desired frequency band of 3.1–5 GHz for UWB-FM applications is covered for the entire industrial temperature range (−40 to 125∘C). Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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