A Wideband Gain Linearized Microwave Voltage Controlled Oscillator with Low Phase Noise Variation in Nanometer CMOS Technology

Abstract

A wideband CMOS LC tank voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) with low phase noise variations and a linearized gain has been designed using a new binary-weighted switched-capacitor and digitally-controlled varactor bank. The novel design has the advantages of more linear VCO frequency tuning, lower phase noise and reduced gain to variations in supply voltage. The proposed VCO has been designed using UMC 90-nm, 6-metal CMOS technology and features phase noise variation of less than 4.9 dBc/Hz. The VCO operates from 3.45 to 6.55 GHz, with phase noise of -133.4 dBc/Hz at a 1 MHz offset, a figure of merit (FoM) of -203.3 dBc/Hz, less than 41 dBm spurious harmonics, and a total VCO core current consumption of 1.18 mA from a 3.3 V voltage supply. To the authors' knowledge, this is the lowest phase noise variation ever reported.