• 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.

• 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.