A new GHz CMOS cellular oscillator network

The design of a new CMOS cellular oscillator network (CON) architecture is presented. With its simple cellular and fractal structure, this architecture can theoretically be spread in 2D or, possibly 3D with infinite number of feedback loops. Given a local disturbance from outside, these feedbacks, in turn, guarantee a uniformly distributed change in the global state as the network is based on the same cellular structure. Choosing the oscillation frequency as our state variable, and adopting a very high speed basic cell based on today´s submicron CMOS technology, we present, in this paper, possibilities of using this architecture for GHz oscillators in RF communication systems. Potential benefits of this oscillator including accurate quadrature signal generation are discussed, and simulations in 0.5 μm CMOS are presented to verify the dynamics of this architecture