Fully integrated low phase-noise VCOs with on-chip MEMS inductors

Author

Park, Eun-Chul ; Choi, Yun-Seok ; Jun-Bo Yoon ; Hong, Songcheol ; Yoon, Euisik

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng. & Comput. Sci., Korea Adv. Inst. of Sci. & Technol., Daejeon, South Korea

Volume

51

Issue

1

fYear

2003

fDate

1/1/2003 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

289

Lastpage

296

Abstract

We present fully integrated high-performance voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs) with on-chip microelectromechanical system (MEMS) inductors for the first time. MEMS inductors have been realized from the unique CMOS-compatible MEMS process that we have developed to provide suspended thick metal structures for high-quality (Q) factors. Fully integrated CMOS VCOs have been fabricated by monolithically integrating these MEMS inductors on the top of the CMOS active circuits realized by the TSMC 0.18-μm mixed-mode CMOS process. Low phase noise has been achieved as -124 and -117 dBc/Hz at 300-kHz offset from carrier frequencies of 1 and 2.6 GHz, respectively, in the fabricated single-chip VCOs.

Keywords

CMOS analogue integrated circuits; inductors; micromechanical devices; phase noise; voltage-controlled oscillators; 0.18 micron; 1 GHz; 2.6 GHz; CMOS active circuit; fully-integrated voltage-controlled oscillator; monolithic integration; on-chip MEMS inductor; phase noise; Active inductors; CMOS process; CMOS technology; Microelectromechanical systems; Micromechanical devices; Phase noise; Radio frequency; Silicon; System-on-a-chip; Voltage-controlled oscillators;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Microwave Theory and Techniques, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9480

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TMTT.2002.806510

Filename

1159642