Dual‐band VCO with composite right‐/left‐handed resonator

Abstract

This article proposes a high‐performance CMOS voltage‐controlled oscillator (VCO) implemented with composite right‐/left‐handed nonmobius‐connected LC‐rings to provide dual‐band differential outputs.The VCO consists of two cross‐coupled sub‐VCOs sharing series‐LC resonators. nMOSFET switches are used to control high‐ and low‐band outputs. The proposed VCO has been implemented with the TSMC 0.18 μm SiGe BiCMOS technology. The die area of the VCO is 1.16 × 1.12 mm2. With the switch on, the odd‐mode VCO operates at the high‐frequency 6 GHz band, and when the switch is off, the even‐mode VCO operates at the low‐frequency 4 GHz band. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 54:468–471, 2013; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/mop.27375