A micromachine-based RF low-noise voltage-controlled oscillator

Author

Young, Darrin J. ; Boser, Bernhard E.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng. & Comput. Sci., California Univ., Berkeley, CA, USA

fYear

1997

fDate

5-8 May 1997

Firstpage

431

Lastpage

434

Abstract

A voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) employs an aluminum micromachined variable capacitor for frequency tuning. Unlike conventional varactor diodes, the capacitor is fabricated on a silicon substrate and thus amenable to monolithic integration with a standard IC process. Experimental capacitors achieve a 16% tuning range with a nominal capacitance value of 2 pF and a quality factor above 60 at 1 GHz. A prototype VCO exhibits -107 dBc/Hz phase-noise at 100 kHz offset frequency from the carrier. The center frequency of 714 MHz and 14 MHz tuning range are limited by the test setup

Keywords

CMOS analogue integrated circuits; UHF integrated circuits; UHF oscillators; aluminium; capacitors; circuit tuning; integrated circuit noise; micromachining; micromechanical devices; phase noise; voltage-controlled oscillators; 2 pF; 714 MHz; Al; Al micromachined variable capacitor; Si; Si substrate; frequency tuning; low-noise VCO; micromachine-based RF VCO; phase-noise; voltage-controlled oscillator; Aluminum; Capacitance; Capacitors; Diodes; Monolithic integrated circuits; Radio frequency; Silicon; Tuning; Varactors; Voltage-controlled oscillators;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Custom Integrated Circuits Conference, 1997., Proceedings of the IEEE 1997

Conference_Location

Santa Clara, CA

Print_ISBN

0-7803-3669-0

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/CICC.1997.606660

Filename

606660