Ultra low power RF cross-coupled VCO design in the subthreshold regime with high immunity to PVT variations in 130nm CMOS technology

This paper presents a novel design and an optimization methodology of an ultra-low power and low phase noise RF voltage controlled oscillator (VCO). This VCO is based on a PMOS-NMOS cross-coupled topology operating in the subthreshold region. An adaptive body biasing technique is presented in this circuit leading to a high immunity to PVT (P=Process, V=Voltage, and T=Temperature) variations. The VCO, implemented in 130nm CMOS technology, consumes only 63 μW under 0.6 V. The obtained tuning range is about 7.2% from 2.32 GHz to 2.495 GHz; therefore, it can address many wireless communication standards such as Wi-Fi, ANT, ZigBee, IEEE 802.15.4, 6LoWPAN, and Bluetooth.