• The Journal of the Institute of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.231-237
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• 2016

This paper presents a multiband low phase noise CMOS VCO with wide frequency tunability using switched bondwire inductor bank. The combination of bondwire inductor and CMOS switch transistor enhances frequency tunability and improves phase noise characteristics. The proposed multiband VCO operates from 2.3GHz to 6.3GHz with phase noise of -136dBc/Hz and -122dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset frequency, respectively. Switched bondwire inductor bank shows high quality factor(Q) at each frequency band, which allows better tradeoff between phase noise and power consumption. The proposed VCO is designed in TSMC 0.18um CMOS process and consumes 7.2 mW power resulting in figure of merit(FOM) of -189.3dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset from 6GHz carrier frequency.

• The Journal of the Institute of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.139-145
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• 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 the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.51 no.11
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• pp.107-113
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• 2014

A VCO (Voltage Controlled Oscillator) and a divide-by-4 high speed frequency divider are implemented using 65nm CMOS technology for 60GHz wireless communication system. The mm-wave VCO was designed by NMOS cross-coupled LC type using current source. The architecture of the divide-by-4 high speed frequency divider is differential ILFD (Injection Locking Frequency Divider) with varactor to control frequency range. The frequency divider also uses current sources to get good phase noise characteristics. The measured results show that the VCO has 64.36~67.68GHz tuning range and the frequency divider divides the VCO output by 4 exactly. The high output power of 5.47~5.97dBm from the frequency divider is measured. The phase noise of the VCO including the frequency divider are -77.17dBc/Hz at 1MHz and -110.83dBc/Hz at 10MHz offset frequency. The power consumption including VCO is 38.4mW with 1.2V supply voltage.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
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• v.43 no.9 s.351
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• pp.17-22
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• 2006

CMOS LC VCO with fast response adaptive frequency calibration (AFC) technique for IEEE 802.11a/b/g WLANs is designed in 1.8V $0.18{\mu}m$ CMOS process. The possible operation is verified for 5.8GHz band, 5.2GHz band, and 2.4GHz band using the switchable L-C resonators. To linearize its frequency-voltage gain (Kvco), optimized multiple MOS varactor biasing tecknique is used. In order to operate in each band frequency range with reduced VCO gain, 4-bit digitally controlled switched- capacitor bank is used and a wide-range digital logic quadricorrelator (WDLQ) is implemented for fast frequency detector.

• International journal of advanced smart convergence
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.172-176
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• 2020

The implementation of a low phase noise voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) is important for the signal integrity of wireless communication terminal. A low phase noise wideband VCO for a wireless local area network (WLAN) application is presented in this paper. A 6-bit coarse tune capacitor bank (capbank) and a fine tune varactor are used in the VCO to cover the target band. The simulated oscillation frequency tuning range is from 8.6 to 11.6 GHz. The proposed VCO is desgned using 65 nm CMOS technology with a high quality (Q) factor bondwire inductor. The VCO is biased with 1.8 V VDD and shows 9.7 mA current consumption. The VCO exhibits a phase noise of -122.77 and -111.14 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset from 8.6 and 11.6 GHz carrier frequency, respectively. The calculated figure of merit(FOM) is -189 dBC/Hz at 1 MHz offset from 8.6 GHz carrier. The simulated results show that the proposed VCO performance satisfies the required specification of WLAN standard.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.281-285
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• 2006

In order to widen the tuning range, capacitive degeneration is applied to fully CMOS LC VCOs. Small signal analysis shows that the fixed MOSFET capacitance seen by the LC tank is smaller than that of the traditional LC VCO, resulting in significant extension in the tuning range. This improvement in the tuning range has been verified through measurement of a 10-GHz LC VCO fabricated by $0.18{\mu}m$ CMOS process. The measured tuning range is from 9.8-GHz to 12-GHz, which is better than those of the reported CMOS LC VCOs in 10-GHz band. The measured phase noise is - 103dBc/Hz at 1MHz offset.

• 한국ITS학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.376-379
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• 2008

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

• ETRI Journal
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.518-526
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• 2012

This paper proposes LC voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) phase-locked loop (PLL) and ring-VCO PLL topologies with low-phase noise. Differential control loops are used for the PLL locking through a symmetrical transformer-resonator or bilaterally controlled varactor pair. A differential compensation mechanism suppresses out-band spurious tones. The prototypes of the proposed PLL are implemented in a CMOS 65-nm or 45-nm process. The measured results of the LC-VCO PLL show operation frequencies of 3.5 GHz to 5.6 GHz, a phase noise of -118 dBc/Hz at a 1 MHz offset, and a spur rejection of 66 dBc, while dissipating 3.2 mA at a 1 V supply. The ring-VCO PLL shows a phase noise of -95 dBc/Hz at a 1 MHz offset, operation frequencies of 1.2 GHz to 2.04 GHz, and a spur rejection of 59 dBc, while dissipating 5.4 mA at a 1.1 V supply.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.755-764
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• 2009

This paper presents a switched self-biasing and a tail current-shaping technique to suppress the 1/f noise from a tail current source in differential cross-coupled inductance-capacitance (LC) voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs). The proposed LC VCO has an amplitude control characteristic due to the creation of negative feedback for the oscillation waveform amplitude. It is fabricated using a 0.13 ${\mu}m$ CMOS process. The measured phase noise is -117 dBc/Hz at a 1 MHz offset from a 4.85 GHz carrier frequency, while it draws 6.5 mA from a 0.6 V supply voltage. For frequency tuning, process variation, and temperature change, the amplitude change rate of the oscillation waveform in the proposed VCO is 2.1 to 3.2 times smaller than that of an existing VCO with a fixed bias. The measured amplitude change rate of the oscillation waveform for frequency tuning from 4.55 GHz to 5.04 GHz is 131 pV/Hz.