A 2.9–30.3GHz fourth-harmonic voltage-controlled oscillator in 130nm SiGe BiCMOS technology

Wide tuning range voltage-controlled oscillators (VCO) are envisioned for applications in radars, broadband communications, phase-locked loops and clock generation/distribution. In this paper, post-layout simulation results of a combined VCO with a ring quadrature VCO (QVCO), an exclusive-OR (XOR) and a fourth-harmonic summation block in 130nm SiGe BiCMOS technology are presented. The combined VCO can be tuned from 2.9 to 30.3GHz. At 2.9GHz, the VCO consumes 32.89mW of power and generates -56.5 dBm (2.24nW) of output power into a 50 Ohm load. At 30.3GHz, it consumes 34.2mW of power and generates -33.5 dBm (398nW) of output power. In both cases, the XOR consumes ~25mW of power and the fourth-harmonic block consumes ~5mW of power. The VCO phase noise at 10MHz offset frequency is -102.2dBc/Hz and -86.04dBc/Hz at 2.9GHz and 30.3GHz, respectively. The VCO figure of merit (FOM) is in the range of -136 to -141. The microchip area is 750μm×500μm. This VCO provides the widest tuning range in the 130nm ring VCOs reported till now.