A 60GHz voltage-controlled oscillator with a 3.6GHz tuning range in 180nm CMOS technology

The unlicensed band around 60 GHz has been allocated for wireless communications at data rates of several gigabits per second, consequently the high speed transceivers operating at 60 GHz is receiving significant research interest. This paper presents a 60 GHz voltage-controlled oscillator using linear superposition technique in SMIC 0.18 ¿m CMOS technology. This technique demonstrates the design feasibility for an oscillator whose output frequency is much higher than the device f_max. The proposed circuit consists of a quadrature voltage-controlled oscillator (QVCO) and a transconductance stage. The circuit exhibits a wide tuning range of 3.6 GHz and a phase noise of -85 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset within the entire frequency range while consuming 30.8 mW power from a 1.4V supply voltage. The output power with a 50 ¿ load is about -33 dBm without an output amplifier. In the real system, the output load should be replaced by 50-100fF capacitive load and the output power can reach about -20 dBm. The circuit occupies a core area of 650×700 ¿m².