A 6 GHz low-noise quadrature Colpitts VCO

Author

Chu, Min ; Allstot, David J.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng., Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

fYear

2004

fDate

13-15 Dec. 2004

Firstpage

21

Lastpage

24

Abstract

A 6 GHz low-noise quadrature Colpitts VCO is presented. Use of the Colpitts configuration together with a series-injection scheme for quadrature signal generation ensures low phase noise operation. The QVCO achieves a simulated average phase noise of -140.5 dBc/Hz at 3 MHz offset across a 500 MHz tuning range while dissipating 20 mW of power. The 500 MHz tuning capability is obtained using switched capacitor arrays and accumulation-mode NMOS varactors. The phase error of the QVCO is 0.55°. The figure-of-merit (FOM) and the power-frequency-tuning normalized FOM (PFTN-FOM) are 194 dB and -2 dB, respectively.

Keywords

BiCMOS integrated circuits; MMIC oscillators; integrated circuit design; integrated circuit noise; phase noise; switched capacitor networks; varactors; voltage-controlled oscillators; 20 mW; PFTN-FOM; QVCO; SiGe BiCMOS technology; accumulation-mode NMOS varactors; figure-of-merit; low phase noise operation; low-noise quadrature Colpitts VCO; phase error; power dissipation; power-frequency-tuning normalized FOM; quadrature signal generation; series-injection scheme; simulated average phase noise; switched capacitor arrays; tuning capability; tuning range; 1f noise; Capacitors; Energy consumption; Frequency; Phase noise; Semiconductor device noise; Signal generators; Topology; Tuning; Voltage-controlled oscillators;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Electronics, Circuits and Systems, 2004. ICECS 2004. Proceedings of the 2004 11th IEEE International Conference on

Print_ISBN

0-7803-8715-5

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ICECS.2004.1399604

Filename

1399604