A K‐band low phase noise and low power CMOS voltage‐controlled oscillator

Abstract

ABSTRACTA K‐band differential cross‐coupled inductance‐ capacitance (LC) voltage‐controlled oscillator (VCO) is implemented in 0.18‐μm CMOS process. To accomplish high quality (Q) factor LC‐tank at K‐band, a slab inductor with high Q is adopted. The VCO can be tuned from 23.1 to 23.38 GHz and the core dc power consumption is 11.33 mW from 1 V power supply. The phase noise is −109.04 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset, and the calculated figure of merit (FoM) is −185.79 dBc/Hz. At low supply voltage mode of 0.65 V, the phase noise is −106.015 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset and the FoM is −189.76 dBc/Hz. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 59:362–366, 2017