Low Noise Voltage-controlled Oscillator Research Articles

Design and Implementation of Charge Pump Phase-Locked Loop Frequency Source Based on GaAs pHEMT Process.

This paper realized a charge pump phase locked loop (CPPLL) frequency source circuit based on 0.15 μm Win GaAs pHEMT process. In this paper, an improved fully differential edge-triggered frequency discriminator (PFD) and an improved differential structure charge pump (CP) are proposed respectively. In addition, a low noise voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) and a static 64:1 frequency divider is realized. Finally, the phase locked loop (PLL) is realized by cascading each module. Measurement results show that the output signal frequency of the proposed CPPLL is 3.584 GHz–4.021 GHz, the phase noise at the frequency offset of 1 MHz is −117.82 dBc/Hz, and the maximum output power is 4.34 dBm. The chip area is 2701 μm × 3381 μm, and the power consumption is 181 mw.

Highly tunable Mn-doped PZT thin films for integrated RF devices

Modern RF systems have triggered an important and urgent demand for inexpensive voltage controlled capacitors used for a wide range of applications such as tunable antennas or low-noise voltage-controlled oscillators (VCO). Ferroelectric materials have received considerable interest for electrically tunable dielectrics due to their high dielectric constant and large dielectric nonlinearity under dc bias field. Lead zirconate titanate (PZT) ceramics which have been under intense investigation for various industrial domains including micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS), non-volatile memories, and high-k capacitors, are especially well-known candidate materials due to their unequalled ferroelectric properties and stability in device operating ranges. However, reported voltage tunability of PZT films is relatively low (~35%@4GHz) and remains insufficient for microwave tunable devices. Therefore, much attention has been focused on the PZT modification by adding a small amount of dopants. Shao et al., studied strontium-doped PZT (PSZT) thin films and achieved a tunability of 48% @1MHz. More recently, Hu et al. reported a tunability of 65%@10kHz for lanthanum-modified PZT (PLZT) films. In the presented study, effect of manganese (Mn) doping on electrical properties of PZT (PMZT) thin films has been investigated. Metal/insulator/metal (MIM) capacitors using PZT-based thin films and ruthenium (Ru) top electrodes were processed on platinized (Pt) silicon wafers by a sol gel method. Dielectric properties of PMZT thin films were studied by varying the dopant amount and compared to those of pure PZT layers. At this end, on-wafer electrical measurements were conducted with a particular attention on leakage current characterization and RF measurements under DC bias voltage. We have shown that leakage current density decreased from 6.5 μA/cm2 to 1 μA/cm2 at 850kV/cm by doping PZT with Mn. Observed conduction mechanisms will be discussed in detail in the full-length paper. Moreover, developed PZT-based thin films exhibit high dielectric strengths achieving 2.1MV/cm and outstanding tunability as high as 85% (~7:1) @1GHz at bias voltage of 20V. Thus, PMZT tunability is among the highest ones reported in the literature for PZT-derived thin films but also for other piezoelectric materials. Indeed, in comparison, the tunability of BST-based materials, typically studied for voltage tunable applications, does not exceed 5:1. These remarkable results indicate that Mn-doped PZT thin films are promising candidates for RF tunable capacitors.

Ultralow Phase Noise Microwave Generation From Mode-Locked Er-Fiber Lasers With Subfemtosecond Integrated Timing Jitter

We demonstrate ultralow phase noise 10-GHz microwave signal generation from a free-running mode-locked Er-fiber laser with -142 and -157 dBc/Hz single-sideband absolute phase noise at 10- and 100-kHz offset frequencies, respectively. The absolute RMS timing jitter is 1.5 fs when integrated from 1-kHz to 5-GHz (Nyquist frequency) offset frequency. In the 10-kHz to 10-MHz integration bandwidth typically used for microwave generators, the RMS integrated jitter is 0.49 fs. The Er-fiber laser is operated in the stretched-pulse regime at close-to-zero dispersion to minimize the phase noise of extracted microwaves. In order to suppress the excess phase noise in the optical-to-electronic conversion process, we synchronize a low-noise voltage-controlled oscillator to the fiber laser using a fiber Sagnac-loop-based optical-microwave phase detector.

Phase Noise Analysis of Clock Recovery Based on an Optoelectronic Phase-Locked Loop

A detailed theoretical analysis of a clock-recovery (CR) scheme based on an optoelectronic phase-locked loop is presented. The analysis emphasizes the phase noise performance, taking into account the noise of the input data signal, the local voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO), and the laser employed in the loop. The effects of loop time delay and the laser transfer function are included in the stochastic differential equations describing the system, and a detailed timing jitter analysis of this type of optoelectronic CR for high-speed optical-time-division-multiplexing systems is performed. It is shown that a large loop length results in a higher timing jitter of the recovered clock signal. The impact of the loop length on the clock signal jitter can be reduced by using a low-noise VCO and a low loop filter bandwidth. Using the model, the timing jitter of the recovered optical and electrical clock signal can be evaluated. We numerically investigate the timing jitter requirements for combined electrical/optical local oscillators, in order for the recovered clock signal to have less jitter than that of the input signal. The timing jitter requirements for the free-running laser and the VCO are more relaxed for the extracted optical clock (lasers's output) signal

Low-noise voltage-controlled oscillators using enhanced LC-tanks

Frequency synthesizers used in modern telecommunication systems, such as cellular telephones, need to have very low phase noise. Therefore, in the design of high performance frequency synthesizers using Phase Locked Loops (PLL), the Voltage-Controlled Oscillator (VCO) has become a key issue. The trend towards monolithic Integration poses some major challenges. This paper discusses the phase noise aspects of LC-tuned oscillators. A general formula is developed, based on the concepts of effective resistance and capacitance. The formula also applies for oscillators using active inductors. From these results the importance of an inductor with very low series resistance is apparent. To circumvent the technological limits given by an Inductor's series resistance, a presented enhanced LC-tank can be used to make a trade-off between noise and power.