Comparative Analyses of Phase Noise in 28 nm CMOS LC Oscillator Circuit Topologies: Hartley, Colpitts, and Common-Source Cross-Coupled Differential Pair

Abstract

This paper reports comparative analyses of phase noise in Hartley, Colpitts, and common-source cross-coupled differential pair LC oscillator topologies in 28 nm CMOS technology. The impulse sensitivity function is used to carry out both qualitative and quantitative analyses of the phase noise exhibited by each circuit component in each circuit topology with oscillation frequency ranging from 1 to 100 GHz. The comparative analyses show the existence of four distinct frequency regions in which the three oscillator topologies rank unevenly in terms of best phase noise performance, due to the combined effects of device noise and circuit node sensitivity.