An 88-GHz Compact Fundamental Oscillator With 19.4% DC-to-RF Efficiency and 7.5-dBm Output Power in 130-nm SiGe BiCMOS

Abstract

This letter presents an 88-GHz fundamental oscillator. By utilizing a device-centric design technique as well as the self-feeding oscillator topology, the fundamental power generation is optimized. The circuit is fabricated in 130-nm SiGe BiCMOS technology and occupies only $200 \times 140\,\,\mu \text{m}^{\mathbf {2}}$ area. The oscillator achieves 7.5 dBm of measured peak output power and 19.4% DC-to-RF efficiency. The output frequency is tunable from 87.5 GHz to 88.5 GHz. The measured phase noise is −107 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset corresponding to a phase noise figure-of-merit of 191.1 at this offset frequency. To the best of our knowledge, this oscillator exhibits the highest reported DC-to-RF efficiency among Si/SiGe mm-wave oscillators at this frequency range.