Improved version of Gravitational Search Algorithm and its application in minimizing the power of CMOS ring voltage controlled oscillator

In this paper, a three-stage CMOS inverter based ring voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) is designed. Very low power consumption is an important feature of the designed VCO. The variables used in the design of the presented oscillator have been quantified using the improved gravitational search algorithm (GSA) in order to minimize the power consumption of the oscillator. In this algorithm, the Boltzmann scaling function is used to control the exploration and exploitation capabilities of GSA. Other advantages of the designed VCO are the high integration capability, simplicity of implementation and high frequency range. The power dissipation of the VCO is 820 µW. The presented oscillator can operate from 1.25 GHz to 2.5 GHz frequency