Amplitude Control Loop to Compensate for I/Q Mismatch in an Accurate Quadrature LC Oscillator

Abstract

In this paper, a novel parallel-coupled quadrature LC oscillator (PC-QO) is presented that can automatically eliminate imbalances of output phase and amplitude resulting from mismatches in the LC tanks. The method of using unequal coupling factors in a parallel-coupled quadrature oscillator is the base of this design; canceling the phase and amplitude errors takes place by tuning the imbalanced coupling factor using tuneable tail currents. First, the proposed circuit senses the amplitude error and then adjusts the coupling factors according to the situation. We show that using the inversely proportional coupling factors can eliminate the phase and amplitude error simultaneously. In other words, this design uses the amplitude control loop to cancel the phase and amplitude error. The circuit has been simulated using TSMC 0.18 CMOS practical model to confirm the high accuracy of the analysis and capability of the canceling [Formula: see text]/[Formula: see text] mismatch technique. The simulation results show that the phase noise of the proposed quadrature voltage controlled oscillator (QVCO) is −123.9 dBc/Hz at 1[Formula: see text]MHz offset from 4.4[Formula: see text]GHz operation frequency. The total power consumption of the QVCO is 3.4[Formula: see text]mW.