A wideband LC-VCO for MMMS applications

A fully integrated wideband voltage-controlled-oscillator (VCO) based on current-reused topology is presented. The overall scheme contains two sub-VCOs, which are controlled by a switch to cover a wide output frequency range. Fabricated in TSMC 65 nm CMOS technology, the measured output frequency of the VCO ranges from 3.991 GHz to 9.713 GHz,achieving a tuning range of 83.5%. And the worst and best phase noise at 1 MHz offset are -93.09 dBc/Hz and -111.97 dBc/Hz, respectively. With a 1.2 V supply voltage, the VCO core consumes a current of 3.7-5.1 mA across the entire frequency range. The chip area is 0.51 mm2, including the pads. Moreover, the proposed VCO provides a figure-of-merit-with-tuning-range (FOMT) of -191 dBc/Hz to -197 dBc/Hz. Copyright © by HIGH TECHNOLOGY LETTERS PRESS.