• 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.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea TC
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.79-84
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• 2007

In this paper, a fully-integrated low phase noise multi-band CMOS VCO using automatic level controller (ALC) and switched LC tank has been presented. The proposed VCO has been fabricated in a 0.13-um CMOS process. The switched LC tank has been designed with a pair of capacitors and two pairs of inductors switched using MOS switch. By using this structure, four band (2.986 ${\sim}$ 3.161, 3.488 ${\sim}$ 3.763, 4.736 ${\sim}$ 5.093, and 5.35 ${\sim}$ 5.887 GHz) operation is achieved in a single VCO. The VCO with 1.2 V power supply has phase noise of -118.105 dBc/Hz @ 1 MHz at 2.986 GHz and -113.777 dBc/Hz @ 1 MHz at 5.887 GHz, respectively. The reduced phase noise has been approximately -1 ${\sim}$ -3 dBc/Hz @ 1 MHz in the broadest tuning range, 2.986 ${\sim}$ 5.887 GHz. The VCO has consumed 4.2 ${\sim}$ 5.4 mW in the entire frequency band.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.417-422
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• 2015

A 6.5 - 8.5 GHz CMOS UWB transmitter is implemented using $0.18{\mu}m$ CMOS technology. The transmitter is mainly composed of switched LC VCO and digital pulse generator (DPG). Using RF switch and DPG, the uniform power and sidelobe rejection are achieved irrespective of the carrier frequency. The measured UWB carrier frequency range is 7 ~ 8 GHz and the pulse width is tunable from 1 to 2 ns. The measured energy efficiency per pulse is 2.1 % and the power consumption is 0.6 mW at 10 Mbps without the buffer amplifier. The chip core size is $0.72mm^2$.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2007.07a
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• pp.431-432
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• 2007

A general method for both reduced VCO gain ($K_{vco}$) and wide frequency band is to use the switched-capacitor bank LC VCO. However, $K_{vco}$ can fluctuate widely in the wide oscillation frequency range of the VCO. In this paper, a design of wide-band VCO with improved frequency-voltage gain performance is presented. Optimized multiple varacter switching technique is used for reducing its frequency-voltage gain variation.

• 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.

• 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 Engineers of Korea SD
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• v.47 no.12
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• pp.75-82
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• 2010

This paper presents a wideband ${\Delta}{\Sigma}$ fractional-N frequency synthesizer for a multi-band single chip CMOS RFIC transceivers. A wideband VCO utilizes a 6-bit switched capacitor array bank for 2340~3940 MHz frequency range. VCO frequency calibration circuit is designed for optimal capacitor bank code selection before phase locking process. It finishes the calibration process in $2{\mu}s$ over the whole frequency band. The LO generation block has selectable multiple division ratios of ${\div}2$, ${\div}16$, and ${\div}32$ to generate LO I/Q signals for T-DMB/DAB/FM Radio systems in L-Band (1173~1973 MHz), VHF-III (147~246 MHz), VFH-II (74~123 MHz), respectively. The measured integrated phase noise is quite low as it is lower than 0.8 degree RMS over the whole frequency band. Total locking time of the ${\Delta}{\Sigma}$ frequency synthesizer including VCO frequency calibration time is less than $50{\mu}s$. The wideband ${\Delta}{\Sigma}$ fractional-N frequency synthesizer is fabricated in $0.13{\mu}m$ CMOS technology, and it consumes 15.8 mA from 1.2 V DC supply.