A wide tuning range LC-VCO using switched capacitor array technique

A 2.4 GHz low phase noise CMOS LC voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) is presented. By using a novel three-bit binary-weighted switched capacitor array, the VCO achieves a tuning range of 51.7% from 1.70 GHz to 2.94 GHz. Designed in SMIC 0.18-μm CMOS technology, the proposed VCO occupies a size of 500 μm × 700 μm. The VCO achieves a phase noise of -123.8 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset from the carrier frequency of 2.4 GHz and draws 8.4 mA current from 1.8 V supply.