A −187.7‐FoM V‐band low‐power CMOS VCO using modified f_T‐doubler with current‐reused technique

Abstract

A modified fT‐doubler with current‐reused technique is proposed to realize a low power and low phase noise V‐band voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) in a standard 1P9M 90‐nm CMOS. The proposed technique not only increases the operation frequency but also reduces the DC power consumption at millimeter‐wave frequencies. The short circuit unity gain frequency fT of the modified fT‐doubler yields a 31% improvement compared to that of conventional one. Measurement result shows that the designed VCO achieves a phase noise of −115.4 dBc/Hz at 10‐MHz offset under a low power consumption of 2 mW. The figure‐of‐merit is up to −187.7 dBc/Hz. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 57:1752–1755, 2015