A filtering technique to lower LC oscillator phase noise

Author

Hegazi, Emad ; Sjöland, Henrik ; Abidi, Asad A.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng., California Univ., Los Angeles, CA, USA

Volume

36

Issue

12

fYear

2001

fDate

12/1/2001 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1921

Lastpage

1930

Abstract

Based on a physical understanding of phase-noise mechanisms, a passive LC filter is found to lower the phase-noise factor in a differential oscillator to its fundamental minimum. Three fully integrated LC voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs) serve as a proof of concept. Two 1.1-GHz VCOs achieve -153 dBc/Hz at 3 MHz offset, biased at 3.7 mA from 2.5 V. A 2.1-GHz VCO achieves -148 dBc/Hz at 15 MHz offset, taking 4 mA from a 2.7-V supply. All oscillators use fully integrated resonators, and the first two exceed discrete transistor modules in figure of merit. Practical aspects and repercussions of the technique are discussed

Keywords

UHF oscillators; passive filters; phase noise; voltage-controlled oscillators; 1.1 GHz; 2.1 GHz; 2.5 V; 2.7 V; 3.7 mA; 4 mA; LC oscillator; differential oscillator; figure of merit; integrated resonator; passive LC filter; phase noise; voltage-controlled oscillator; Circuit noise; Filtering; Inductors; Integrated circuit noise; Integrated circuit technology; Noise shaping; Phase noise; Q factor; Radio frequency; Voltage-controlled oscillators;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Solid-State Circuits, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9200

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/4.972142

Filename

972142