Wide-Band Fine-Resolution DCO with an Active Inductor and Three-Step Coarse Tuning Loop

Abstract

This paper presents a wide-band fine-resolution digitally controlled oscillator (DCO) with an active inductor using an automatic three-step coarse and gain tuning loop. To control the frequency of the DCO, the transconductance of the active inductor is tuned digitally. To cover the wide tuning range, a three-step coarse tuning scheme is used. In addition, the DCO gain needs to be calibrated digitally to compensate for gain variations. The DCO tuning range is 58% at 2.4 GHz, and the power consumption is 6.6 mW from a 1.2 V supply voltage. An effective frequency resolution is 0.14 kHz. The phase noise of the DCO output at 2.4 GHz is –120.67 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset.