Tail‐free fast start‐up 1 mW 5 G voltage controlled oscillator for new radio application

Abstract

AbstractThis article proposed a technique for a low‐power and fast start‐up voltage‐controlled oscillator (VCO) for a high data rate 5 G New Radio (5G‐NR) application. The 5G‐NR high data rate signals require a fast start‐up VCO to accommodate the short pulse width. In this proposed work, a cross‐coupled pair (XCP) is integrated with a center‐tapped orthogonal symmetry inductor placed at the gates of the XCP, forming an inductive booster VCO (IBVCO). The inductive impedance at the gate of the XCP preserve the symmetry signal profile of the output voltage swing while alleviating the intrinsic parasitic capacitance effect and flicker noise effect of the transistor under the absence of the tail current source. The concept proves with the improvement on the phase noise performance and generating a fast start‐up without affecting the VCO bandwidth. The VCO also provides the enhancement of the output voltage swing under low power consumption. The IBVCO has been fabricated in 180 nm complementary metal oxide semiconductor technology and consumes a minimum area of only 0.7 mm2. The IBVCO achieved a 13% tuning range from 3.3 to 3.75 GHz bandwidth with a supply voltage, VDD of 0.7 V. The total power consumption is 1 mW with a corresponding phase noise of −122.60 dBc/Hz and a Figure of Merit (FoM) of 193.48 dBc/Hz at 3.52 GHz carrier center frequency at 1 MHz offset. The start‐up time of the VCO achieved is 5 ns.