• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• 제13권3호
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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.

• 한국전기전자재료학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국전기전자재료학회 2008년도 하계학술대회 논문집 Vol.9
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• pp.501-503
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• 2008

This paper presents the design of a 2.4 GHz low phase noise fully integrated LC Voltage-Controlled-Oscillator (VCO) in $0.18{\mu}m$ CMOS technology. The VCO is without any tail bias current sources for a low phase noise and, in which differential varactors are adopted for the symmetry of the circuit. At the same time, the use of differential varactors pairs reduces the tuning range, i.e., the frequency range versus VTUNE, so that the phase noise becomes lower. The simulation results show the achieved phase noise of -138.5 dBc/Hz at 3 MHz offset, while the VCO core draws 3.9mA of current from a 1.8V supply. The tuning range is from 2.28GHz to 2.55 GHz.

• Journal of electromagnetic engineering and science
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• 제7권2호
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• pp.64-68
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• 2007

An InGaP/GaAs HBT based differential Colpitts voltage control oscillator(VCO) is presented in this paper. In the VCO core, two switching transistors are introduced to steer the core bias current to save power. An LC tank with an inductor quality factor(Q) of 11.4 is used to generate oscillation frequency. It has a superior phase noise characteristics of -130.12 dBc/Hz and -105.3 at 1 MHz and 100 kHz frequency offsets respectively from the carrier frequency(1.566 GHz) when supplied with a control voltage of 0 volt. It dissipates output power of -5.3 dBm. Two pairs of on-chip base collector (BC) diodes are used in the tank circuit to increase the VCO tuning range(168 MHz). This VCO occupies the area of $1.070{\times}0.90mm^2$ including buffer and pads.

• ETRI Journal
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• 제31권6호
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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.

• ETRI Journal
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• 제27권5호
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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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• 제4권2호
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• pp.83-87
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• 2004

Phase noise performance and current consumption of Radio Frequency (RF) Voltage-Controlled Oscillator (VCO) are largely dependent on the Quality (Q) factor of inductor-capacitor (LC) tank. Because the Q-factor of LC tank is determined by on-chip spiral inductor, we designed, analyzed, and modeled on-chip differential inductor to enhance differential Q-factor, reduce current consumption and save silicon area. The simulated inductance is 3.3 nH and Q-factor is 15 at 2 GHz. Self-resonance frequency is as high as 13 GHz. To verify its use to RF applications, we designed 2 GHz differential LC VCO. The measurement result of phase noise is -112 dBc/Hz at an offset frequency of 100 kHz from a 2GHz carrier frequency. Tuning range is about 500 MHz (25%), and current consumption varies from 5mA to 8.4 mA using bias control technique. Implemented in $0.35-{\mu}m$ SiGe BiCMOS technology, the VCO occupies $400\;um{\times}800\;um$ of silicon area.

• Journal of electromagnetic engineering and science
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• 제4권4호
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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.