A Millimeter-Wave LC Cross-Coupled VCO for 60 GHz WP AN Application in a 0.13-μm Si RF CMOS Technology

Recently, the demand on mm-wave (millimeter-wave) applications has increased dramatically. While circuits operating in the mm-wave frequency band have been traditionally implemented in III-V or SiGe technologies, recent advances in Si MOSFET operation speed enabled mm-wave circuits realized in a Si CMOS technology. In this work, a 58 GHz CMOS LC cross-coupled VCO (Voltage Controlled Oscillator) was fabricated in a $0.13-{\mu}m$ Si RF CMOS technology. In the course of the circuit design, active device models were modified for improved accuracy in the mm-wave range and EM (electromagnetic) simulation was heavily employed for passive device performance predicttion and interconnection parasitic extraction. The measured operating frequency ranged from 56.5 to 58.5 GHz with a tuning voltage swept from 0 to 2.3 V. The minimum phase noise of -96 dBc/Hz at 5 MHz offset was achieved. The output power varied around -20 dBm over the measured tuning range. The circuit drew current (including buffer current) of 10 mA from 1.5 V supply voltage. The FOM (Figure-Of-Merit) was estimated to be -165.5 dBc/Hz.