A 60-GHz 8.4-dBm Output Power OOK-Capable VCO Based on a Feedback Class-E Amplifier

Abstract

This letter presents the design and analysis of a 60-GHz voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) based on a class-E amplifier with feedback from the drain to the gate of the transistor. This proposed VCO can produce an output signal of 8.4 dBm to meet the requirements of short-range communication and does not require an additional power amplifier (PA). The back-gate voltage of the transistor is used to modulate the oscillation frequency, achieving a frequency tuning range (FTR) from 64.1 to 66.2 GHz. The VCO consumes 38- and 0.2-mW power in the operating and standby states, respectively, and has achieved up to 22% DC-to-RF efficiency. Moreover, an on–off-keying (OOK) modulation is also integrated into this VCO that achieves up to 2.2-Gb/s throughput at 12.2-pJ/b efficiency.