A Regulation-Free Sub-0.5-V 16-/24-MHz Crystal Oscillator With 14.2-nJ Startup Energy and 31.8- $\mu$ W Steady-State Power

This paper reports a regulation-free sub-0.5-V crystal oscillator (XO). The XO specifically designed for Bluetooth low-energy (BLE) radios aims for direct-powering by the harvested energy. To secure its performance against process, voltage, and temperature (PVT) variations, while reducing its startup time and energy, we propose a dual-mode <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$g_{m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> scheme and a scalable self-reference chirp injection (SSCI) technique. The former employs an inductive multistage <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$g_{m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> to mitigate the crystal’s stray capacitance during the startup, but a single-stage <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$g_{m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> in the steady state to preserve the phase noise (PN). For the latter (SSCI), we generate a scalable chirping sequence to kick-start the XO, avoiding trimming of the auxiliary oscillator. The XO fabricated in 65-nm CMOS is measured with two common crystals (16/24 MHz) over a 0.3-to-0.5-V supply. At 24 MHz and 0.35 V, the startup time and energy of the XO are 400 <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{s}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and 14.2 nJ, respectively, while showing a steady-state power of 31.8 <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{W}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and a PN of −134 dBc/Hz at 1-kHz offset. The frequency stability is 14.1 ppm against temperature (−40 °C–90 °C) and 17.9 ppm against voltage (0.3–0.5 V), both conform to the BLE standard (±50 ppm) with adequate margin.

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