Power-efficient injection-locked oscillator for biomedical telemetry applications

A low-voltage low-power injection-locked RF oscillator using a self-cascode structure and body terminal coupling is reported. A self-cascode structure facilitates higher resistance in each conducting path and helps achieve low-power operation without degrading the voltage headroom. Body terminal coupling provides injection-locking without appreciably increasing the power consumption. The proposed oscillator fabricated in 0.18 m RF CMOS process can operate with a supply voltage as low as 0.9 V and consumes only 1.161 mW of power for 1.30 GHz operating frequency. Relatively low power consumption makes the design highly suitable for low-power transmitter applications.