A Design of Wide-Range and Low Phase Noise Linear Transconductance VCO with 193.76 dBc/Hz FoMT for mm-Wave 5G Transceivers

Abstract

This paper presents a wide-range and low phase noise mm-Wave Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO) based on the transconductance linearization technique. The proposed technique eliminates the deep triode region of the active part of the VCO, and lowers the noise introduced by the gm-cell. The switch sizes inside the switched capacitor bank of the VCO are optimized to minimize the resistance of the switches while keeping the wide tuning range. A new layout technique shortens the routing of the VCO outputs, and lowers the parasitic inductance and resistance of the VCO routing. The presented method prevents the reduction of the quality factor of the tank due to the long routing. The proposed VCO achieves a discrete frequency tuning range, of 14 GHz to 18 GHz, through a linear coarse and middle switched capacitor array, and offers superior phase noise performance compared to recent state-of-the-art VCO architectures. The design is implemented in a 45 nm CMOS process and occupies a layout area (including output buffers) of 0.14 mm2. The power consumption of the VCO core is 24 mW from the power supply of 0.8 V. The post-layout simulation result shows the VCO achieves the phase noise performances of −87.2 dBc/Hz and −113 dBc/Hz, at 100 kHz and 1 MHz offset frequencies from the carrier frequency of 14 GHz, respectively. In an 18 GHz carrier frequency, the results are −87.4 dBc/Hz and −110 dBc/Hz, accordingly.

Spintronic RF-Direct on-off Keying Modulation Using a Frequency Division Multiplex

“…STNOs have low power consumption behavior characteristics, which are more than 10 times less than other published results [23][24][25] designed for lower milliwatt operation, as shown in Table 2. Notably, the wireless technology of spintronic modulation could be designed with much smaller size, as shown in Table 2, than even a ring VCO which is designed without an inductor [25], as it is operated independently as a nano-scaled resonator.…”

“…STNOs have low power consumption behavior characteristics, which are more than 10 times less than other published results [23][24][25] designed for lower milliwatt operation, Figure 10 shows the spintronics array Tx bonded with STNOs structured in a 2 × 4 array for transmitting multi-channel signals on the magnetic field generator. We selected two out of the eight STNOs and set the target frequency by controlling the magnitude of the magnetic field, the rotation field angle of the applied magnetic field to the STNO, and the current quantity based on STNO operation [22].…”

Layout of MOS Varactor with Improved Quality Factor for Cross-Coupled Differential Voltage-Controlled Oscillator Applications

“…This implies that the quality factor of the LC tank affects the phase noise of the VCO [10]. Therefore, in order to improve the phase noise, it is important to improve the quality factor by minimizing the parasitic resistance of the inductor, capacitor, and MOS varactor constituting the LC tank [11][12][13].…”

On-Chip Voltage-Controlled Oscillator Based on a Center-Tapped Switched Inductor Using GaN-on-SiC HEMT Technology

“…A voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) is the most ubiquitous element in fully integrated transceivers to generate a tunable local carrier as a local oscillator for up and down frequency conversion in phased array or radar systems [1,2]. To effectively drive multiple mixers in a phased array or provide sufficient detection range for transmitters, AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMT) are promising candidates for high power at radio-frequency applications.…”