A wide-tuning range low phase noise LC-VCO with a high Q switched capacitor array

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School of Integrated Circuits, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
State Key Lab of Fabrication Technologies for Integrated Circuits">Yingxi Wang, School of Integrated Circuits, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
State Key Lab of Fabrication Technologies for Integrated Circuits">Shaowen Hu, School of Integrated Circuits, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
State Key Lab of Fabrication Technologies for Integrated Circuits">Mengjie Qin, School of Integrated Circuits, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
State Key Lab of Fabrication Technologies for Integrated Circuits">Lanlan Liao, School of Integrated Circuits, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
State Key Lab of Fabrication Technologies for Integrated Circuits">Haotang Xu, School of Integrated Circuits, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
State Key Lab of Fabrication Technologies for Integrated Circuits">Zhongmao Li, School of Integrated Circuits, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
State Key Lab of Fabrication Technologies for Integrated Circuits">Zhiqiang Li

Author information

Yingxi Wang
Institute of Microelectronics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
School of Integrated Circuits, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
State Key Lab of Fabrication Technologies for Integrated Circuits
Shaowen Hu
Institute of Microelectronics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
School of Integrated Circuits, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
State Key Lab of Fabrication Technologies for Integrated Circuits
Mengjie Qin
Institute of Microelectronics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
School of Integrated Circuits, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
State Key Lab of Fabrication Technologies for Integrated Circuits
Lanlan Liao
Institute of Microelectronics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
School of Integrated Circuits, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
State Key Lab of Fabrication Technologies for Integrated Circuits
Haotang Xu
Institute of Microelectronics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
School of Integrated Circuits, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
State Key Lab of Fabrication Technologies for Integrated Circuits
Zhongmao Li
Institute of Microelectronics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
School of Integrated Circuits, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
State Key Lab of Fabrication Technologies for Integrated Circuits
Zhiqiang Li
Institute of Microelectronics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
School of Integrated Circuits, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
State Key Lab of Fabrication Technologies for Integrated Circuits

Keywords: voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO), phase noise, wide tuning range, switched capacitor array (SCA)

JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

2023 Volume 20 Issue 19 Pages 20230355

DOI https://doi.org/10.1587/elex.20.20230355

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Abstract

A fully-integrated inductance-capacitance (LC) voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) with a wide tuning range and low phase noise was designed and demonstrated in 130nm CMOS technology process. To achieve a higher quality factor (Q) value, a proposed switched capacitor array (SCA) combining 4-bit switched capacitors with large capacitance and 3-bit switched capacitors with small capacitance is adopted, which occupies a small area at the same time. In addition, a varactor array and a tail resistor array are used to provide flexibly dynamic VCO gain adjustment and power consumption adjustment, separately. The measurement shows a continuous tuning range of 48% from 1.9 to 3.1GHz and consumes 9.6mW of DC power from a 1.2V supply voltage (excluding buffers). Furthermore, this design displays the phase noise of 125.63dBc/Hz at 1MHz offset from its 2.5GHz oscillation frequency. The proposed VCO’s measured figure-of-merit including the tuning range (FoM_T) is -197.39dBc/Hz at a carrier frequency of 2.5GHz, which demonstrates the potential of the proposed VCO for application in integrated circuits.

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