• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.975-981
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• 2020

A 10 GHz LC voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO), which controls an amplitude of output signal, is proposed to improve the phase noise. The proposed amplitude control circuit for the LC VCO consists of a peak detector, an amplifier, and a current source. The peak detector is performed detecting the lowest voltage of the output signal by using two diode-connected NMOSFET and a capacitor. The proposed 10 GHz LC VCO with an amplitude control circuit for output signal is designed using a 55 nm CMOS process with a supply voltage of 1.2 V. Its area is 0.0785 ㎟. The amplitude control circuit used in the proposed LC VCO reduces the amplitude variation 242 mV generated in the output signal of the conventional LC VCO to 47 mV. Furthermore, it improves the peak-to-peak time jitter from 8.71 ps to 931 fs.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.473-483
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• 2005

In this paper, we propose two LC voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs) that improve both phase noise and tuning range. With both 1/f induced low-frequency noise and low-frequency thermal noise around DC or around harmonics suppressed significantly by the employment of a current-current negative feedback (CCNF) loop, the phase noise in the CCNF LC VCO has been improved by about 10 dB at 6 MHz offset compared to the conventional LC VCO. The phase noise of the CCNF VCO was measured as -112 dBc/Hz at 6 MHz offset from 5.5 GHz carrier frequency. Also, we present a bandwidth-enhanced LC VCO whose tuning range has been increased about 250 % by connecting the varactor to the bases of the cross-coupled pair. The phase noise of the bandwidth-enhanced LC-tank VCO has been improved by about 6 dB at 6 MHz offset compared to the conventional LC VCO. The phase noise reduction has been achieved because the DC-decoupling capacitor Cc prevents the output common-mode level from modulating the varactor bias point, and the signal power increases in the LC-tank resonator. The bandwidth-enhanced LC VCO represents a 12 % bandwidth and phase noise of -108 dBc/Hz at 6 MHz offset.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.207-212
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• 2013

A new CMOS voltage-bias differential LC voltage-controlled oscillator (LC-VCO) with active source degeneration is proposed. The proposed degeneration technique preserves the quality factor of the LC-tank which leads to improvement in phase noise of VCO oscillators. The proposed VCO shows the high figure of merit (FOM) with large tuning range, low power, and small chip size compared to those of conventional voltage-bias differential LC-VCO. The proposed VCO implemented in 0.18-${\mu}m$ CMOS shows the phase noise of -118 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset oscillating at 5.03 GHz, tuning range of 12%, occupies 0.15 $mm^2$ of chip area while dissipating 1.44 mW from 0.8 V supply.

• Journal of electromagnetic engineering and science
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.168-174
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• 2004

A bandwidth-enhanced and phase noise-improved differential LC-tank VCO is proposed in this paper. By connecting the varactors to the bases of the cross-coupled transistors of the proposed LC-tank VCO, its input negative resistance has been widened. Also, the feedback capacitor Cc in the cross-coupling path of the proposed LC-tank VCO attenuates the output common-mode level modulated by the low-frequency noise because the modulated common-mode level jitters the varactor bias point and degrades phase noise. Compared with the fabricated conventional LC-tank VCO, the proposed LC-tank VCO demonstrates $200\;\%$ enhancement in tuning range, and 6 - dB improvement in phase noise at 6 MHz offset frequency from 5.4-GHz carrier. We achieved the phase noise of - 106 dBc/Hz at 6 MHz offset, and $10\;\%$ tuning range from the proposed LC-tank VCO. The proposed LC-tank VCO consumes 12 mA at 2.5 V supply voltage.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.145-151
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• 2004

This paper presents a fully integrated 5 GHz band low phase noise LC tank VCO. The implemented VCO is tuned by integrated PN diodes and tuning rage is 5.01∼5.30 GHz with 0∼3 V control voltage. For improved phase noise performance, a LC filtering technique is adapted. 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 excellent performance. Moreover phase noise is improved by 5 dB after employing the LC filter. It is the first experimental result in field of InGaP/GaAs HBT VCOs. 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.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2008.10b
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• pp.217-218
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• 2008

Since the digital TV signal band is very wide ($54{\sim}806MHz$), the VCO used in the frequency synthesizer must also have a wide frequency tuning range. Multiple LC VCOs have been used to cover such wide frequency band. However, the chip area increases due to the increased number of integrated inductors. A general method for achieving both reduced VCO gain(Kvco) and wide frequency band is to use the switched-capacitor bank LC VCO. In this paper, a scheme is proposed to cover the full band using only one VCO. The RF VCO block designed using a 0.18um CMOS process consists of a wideband LC VCO with reduced variation of VCO gain and frequency steps. Buffers, divide-by-2 circuits and control logics the simulation results show that the designed circuit has a phase noise at 100kHz better than -106dBc/Hz throughout the signal band and consumes $9.5{\sim}13mA$ from a 1.8V supply.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
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• v.18 no.5 s.120
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• pp.539-546
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• 2007

In this paper, a 3-D EM simulation methodology for on-chip spiral inductor analysis has provided and it is shown that the methodology can be adapted to the highly predictable design for CMOS VCO. LC-resonator type VCO have fabricated by using standard 0.25 um CMOS process. And the LC VCO layout case which has pattern ground shielded inductors and the other layout case which has no pattern grounded inductors were fabricated for the verification of their effects on the VCO's phase noise by reducing the Q-factor of inductors. Fabricated VCO has 3.094 GHz, -12.15 dBm output at the tuning voltage of 2.5 V, and from the simulation, Q-factor of the pattern grounded inductor has increased 8% at 3 GHz, and from the measurement results, the phase noise has reduced by 9 dB at the 3 MHz off-set frequency for the pattern grounded inductor layout case.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
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• v.18 no.2 s.117
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• pp.177-182
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• 2007

This paper presents the InGaP/GaAs HBT differential LC VCO with low phase noise performance for adaptive feedback interference cancellation system(AF-lCS). The VCO is verified with enhanced tank structure including filtering technique. The output tuning range for proposed VCO using asymmetric inductor and symmetric capacitors withlow pass filtering technique is 207 MHz. The output powers are -6.68 including balun and cable loss. The phase noise of this VCO at 10 kHz, 100 kHz and 1 MHz are -102.02 dBc/Hz, -112.04 dBc/Hz and -130.40 dBc/Hz. The VCO is designed within total size of $0.9{\times}0.9mm^2$.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.35-43
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• 2011

In this paper, an analysis on I/Q mismatch characteristics of a quadrature LC VCO(Voltage controlled oscillator) is presented. Based on this analysis, a new I/Q mismatch compensator is proposed. The proposed I/Q mismatch compensator utilizes an amplitude mismatch detector rather than the conventional phase mismatch detector requiring much more wide frequency bandwidth. To verify the proposed circuit, a 2.5GHz quadrature LC VCO was designed in a $0.18{\mu}m$ CMOS process and tested. Test results show that an amplitude mismatch detector achieves similar I/Q mismatch compensation performance as that of the conventional phase mismatch detector. The I/Q mismatch compensator consumes 0.4mA from 1.8V supply voltage and occupies $0.04mm^2$.