A 1.4-GHz 3-mW CMOS LC low phase noise VCO using tapped bond wire inductances

ABSTRACT

A 1.4-GHz LC voltage-controlled oscillator has been implemented in a MOSIS 0.5-µm CMOS process. Complementary cross-coupled PMOS and NMOS transistors enhance single-ended symmetry at each of the resonant nodes, reducing close-in phase noise. Tapped bond wires provide a resonant tank with high Q. At an offset frequency of 100 kHz, the measured phase noise is -107 dBc/Hz with 3 mW power dissipation from a 3.0 V supply. NMOS gate capacitors achieve a 17% tuning range.

REFERENCES

• 1: Hajimiri, A. and Lee, T., "A general theory of phasenoise in electrical oscillators," IEEE Journal of Solid- State Circuits (Feb. 1998)
• 2: Ahrens, T., Hajimiri, A., and Lee, T., "A 1.6GHz 0.5mW CMOS LC low phase noise VCO using bond wire inductance," International Workshop on Design of Mixed-Mode Integrated Circuits and Applications (July 1997), pp. 69-71.
• 3: Craninckx, J. and Steyaert, M., "A 1.8GHz CMOS lowphase-noise voltage controlled oscillator with prescaler." 1EEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits (Dec. 1995) vol.30, no.12, pp.1474-82.
• 4: Steyaert, M. and Craninckx, J., "1.1GHz oscillator using bondwire inductance," Electronics Letters (3 Feb. 1994) vol. 30, no.3, pp.244-5.
• 5: Nguyen, N.M. and Meyer, R., "A 1.8GHz monolithic LC voltage-controlled oscillator," IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits (March 1992) vol.27, no.3, pp.444-50.
• 6: Craninckx, J. and Steyaert, M., "Low-noise voltagecontrolled oscillators using enhanced LC-tanks," IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems II: Analog and Digital Signal Processing (Dec. 1995) vol.42, no.12, pp.794-804.
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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  B. Hardware
  B.7 INTEGRATED CIRCUITS
      B.7.1 Types and Design Styles
          Subjects: Memory technologies

Additional Classification:
  B. Hardware
  B.8 Performance and Reliability

  C. Computer Systems Organization
  C.3 SPECIAL-PURPOSE AND APPLICATION-BASED SYSTEMS
      Subjects: Signal processing systems

  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.5 PATTERN RECOGNITION
      I.5.4 Applications
          Subjects: Signal processing

General Terms:
Design, Experimentation, Measurement, Performance, Theory