• Journal of electromagnetic engineering and science
• /
• v.17 no.2
• /
• pp.98-104
• /
• 2017

This work describes the development and comparison of two phase-locked loops (PLLs) based on a 65-nm CMOS technology. The PLLs incorporate two different topologies for the output voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO): LC cross-coupled and differential Colpitts. The measured locking ranges of the LC cross-coupled VCO-based phase-locked loop (PLL1) and the Colpitts VCO-based phase-locked loop (PLL2) are 119.84-122.61 GHz and 126.53-129.29 GHz, respectively. Th e output powers of PLL1 and PLL2 are -8.6 dBm and -10.5 dBm with DC power consumptions of 127.3 mW and 142.8 mW, respectively. Th e measured phase noise of PLL1 is -59.2 at 10 kHz offset and -104.5 at 10 MHz offset, and the phase noise of PLL2 is -60.9 dBc/Hz at 10 kHz offset and -104.4 dBc/Hz at 10 MHz offset. The chip sizes are $1,080{\mu}m{\times}760{\mu}m$ (PLL1) and $1,100{\mu}m{\times}800{\mu}m$ (PLL2), including the probing pads.

• Proceedings of the Korea Electromagnetic Engineering Society Conference
• /
• 2002.11a
• /
• pp.21-24
• /
• 2002

This paper presents a fully integrated, wide tuning range differential CMOS voltage-controlled oscillator, tuned by pMOS-varactors. VCO utilizing a novel tuning scheme is reported. Both coarse digital tuning and fine analog tuning are achieved using pMOS-varactors. The VCO were implemented in a 0.18-fm standard CMOS process. The VCO tuned from 1.8㎓ to 2.55㎓ through 2-bit digital and analog input. At 1.8V power supply voltage and a total power dissipation of 8mW, the VCO features a phase noise of -126㏈c/㎐ at 3㎒ frequency offset.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
• /
• v.28 no.12
• /
• pp.941-947
• /
• 2017

This paper reports a fractional-N phase-locked-loop(PLL) frequency synthesizer that is implemented in a $0.35-{\mu}m$ standard CMOS process and generates a quadrature signal for an FRS terminal. The synthesizer consists of a voltage-controlled oscillator(VCO), a charge pump(CP), loop filter(LF), a phase frequency detector(PFD), and a frequency divider. The VCO has been designed with an LC resonant circuit to provide better phase noise and power characteristics, and the CP is designed to be able to adjust the pumping current according to the PFD output. The frequency divider has been designed by a 16-divider pre-scaler and fractional-N divider based on the third delta-sigma modulator($3^{rd}$ DSM). The LF is a third-order RC filter. The measured results show that the proposed device has a dynamic frequency range of 460~510 MHz and -3.86 dBm radio-frequency output power. The phase noise of the output signal is -94.8 dBc/Hz, and the lock-in time is $300{\mu}s$.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SC
• /
• v.42 no.6
• /
• pp.23-36
• /
• 2005

PLLs have been widely used for many applications including communication systems. This paper presents a VCO with an improved negative skewed delay scheme and a PLL using this VCO. The proposed VCO and PLL are intended for replacing traditional LC oscillators and PLLs used in communication systems and other applications. The circuit designs of the VCO and PLL are based on 0.18um CMOS technology with 1.8V supply voltage. The proposed VCO employs subfeedback loops using pass-transistors and needs two opposite control voltages for the pass transistors. The subfeedback loops speed up oscillation depending on the control voltages and thus provide a high oscillation frequency. The two voltage controls have opposite frequency gain characteristics and result in low phase-noise. The 7-stage VCO in 0.18um CMOS technology operates from $3.2GHz\~6.3GHz$ with phase noise of about -128.8 dBc/Hz at 1MHz frequency onset. For 1.8V supply voltage, the current consumption is about 3.8mA. The proposed PLL has dual loop-filters for the proposed VCO. The PLL is operated at 5GHz with 1.8V supply voltage. These results indicate that the proposed VCO can be used for radio frequency operations replacing LC oscillators. The circuits have been designed and simulated using 0.18um TSMC library.

• The Journal of the Institute of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
• /
• v.24 no.2
• /
• pp.139-145
• /
• 2024

This paper presents the design of a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) which is one of the key building blocks in modern wireless communication systems with small VCO gain (K_vco) variation. To compensate conventional large K_vco variation, a series varactor bank has been added to the conventional LC-tank with parallel capacitor bank array. And also, in order to achieve excellent phase noise performance while maintaining wide tuning range, a mixed coarse/fine tuning scheme(series varactor array and parallel capacitor array) is chosen. The switched varactor array bank is controlled by the same digital code for switched capacitor array without additional digital circuits. For use at a low voltage of 1.2V, the proposed current reference circuit in this paper used a current reference circuit for safety with the common gate removed more safely. Implemented in a TSMC 0.13㎛ CMOS RF technology, the proposed VCO can be tuned from 4.4GH to 5.3GHz with the K_vco (VCO gain ) variation of less than 9.6%. While consuming 3.1mA from a 1.2V supply, the VCO has -120dBc/Hz phase noise at 1MHz offset from the carrier of the 5.3 GHz.

• Journal of Industrial Technology
• /
• v.29 no.B
• /
• pp.101-105
• /
• 2009

A 1.571GHz LC VCO with optimized spiral inductor for GPS receiver is designed in 130nm CMOS process. The phase noise of the VCO has been reduced the use of high Q inductor and on chip filter. It has phase noise of -91dBc/Hz, -111dBc/Hz, and -131dBc/Hz at 10kHz, 100kHz, and 1MHz offset frequencies from the carrier, respectively. This VCO consumes 2mA from a 0.6V supply.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
• /
• v.9 no.4
• /
• pp.192-197
• /
• 2009

This paper presents the design and measurement of a 2.4/5.2-GHz dual band VCO with a balanced frequency doubler in $0.18\;{\mu}m$ CMOS process. The topology of a 2.4 GHz VCO is a cross-coupled VCO with a LC tank and the frequency of the VCO is doubled by a frequency balanced doubler for a 5.2 GHz VCO. The gate bias matching network for class B operation in the balanced doubler is adopted to obtain as much power at 2nd harmonic output as possible. The average output powers of the 2.4 GHz and 5.2 GHz VCOs are -12 dBm and -13 dBm, respectively, the doubled VCO has fundamental harmonic suppression of -25 dB. The measured phase noises at 5 MHz frequency offset are -123 dBc /Hz from 2.6 GHz and -118 dBc /Hz from 5.1 GHz. The total size of the dual band VCO is $1.0\;mm{\times}0.9\;mm$ including pads.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
• /
• v.8 no.4
• /
• pp.295-301
• /
• 2008

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.

• Journal of electromagnetic engineering and science
• /
• v.8 no.3
• /
• pp.134-137
• /
• 2008

This paper proposes a novel quadrature VCO(QVCO) based on direct back-gate second harmonic coupling. The QVCO directly couples the current sources of the conventional LC VCOs through the back-gate instead of front-gate to generate quadrature signals. By the second harmonic injection locking, the two LC VCOs can generate quadrature signals without using on-chip transformer, or stability problem that is inherent in the direct front-gate second harmonic coupling. The proposed QVCO is implemented in $0.18{\mu}m$ CMOS technology operating at 2 GHz with 5.0 mA core current consumption from 1.8 V power supply. The measured phase noise of the proposed QVCO is - 63 dBc/Hz at 10 kHz offset, -95 dBc/Hz at 100 kHz offset, and -116 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset from the 2 GHz output frequency, respectively. The calculated figure of merit(FOM) is about -174 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset. The measured image band rejection is 46 dB which corresponds to the phase error of $0.6^{\circ}$.

• Proceedings of the Korea Electromagnetic Engineering Society Conference
• /
• 2003.11a
• /
• pp.155-159
• /
• 2003

This paper presents fully integrated 5 GHz band low phase noise LC tank VCO. The implemented VCO is tuned by integrated PN diode and tuning rage is $5.01{\sim}5.30$ GHz under $0{\sim}3 V$ control voltage. For good phase noise performance, LC filtering technique, common in Si CMOS process, is used, and to prevent degradation of phase noise performance by collector shot-noise and to reduce power dissipation the HBT is biased at low collector current density bias point. The measured phase noise is -87.8 dBc/Hz at 100 kHz offset frequency and -111.4 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset frequency which is good performance. Moreover phase noise is improved by roughly 5 dEc by LC filter. It is the first experimental result in InGaP/GaAs HBT process. The figure of merit of the fabricated VCO with LC filter is -172.1 dBc/Hz. It is the best result among 5 GHz InGaP HBT VCOs. Moreover this work shows lower DC power consumption, higher output power and more fixed output power compared with previous 4, 5 GHz band InGaP HBT VCOs.