• 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.

• 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.