A low-power low-phase-noise LC VCO with MEMS Cu inductors

Author

Chen, Hsiao-Chin ; Chien, Chao-Heng ; Chiu, Hung-Wei ; Lu, Shey-Shi ; Chang, Kung-Neng ; Chen, Kun-Yu ; Chen, Shi-Hao

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng., Nat. Taiwan Univ., Taipei, Taiwan

Volume

15

Issue

6

fYear

2005

fDate

6/1/2005 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

434

Lastpage

436

Abstract

A 2-3 GHz CMOS inductance-capacitance (LC) voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) integrated with high-Q micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) Cu inductors is reported. While dissipating only 6.3 mW, a phase noise of -121 dBc/Hz at 600 kHz offset from 2.78 GHz carrier is achieved. This MEMS VCO has the largest power-frequency normalized figure-of-merit (12.5 dB) among the Si bipolar and CMOS LC VCOs.

Keywords

CMOS analogue integrated circuits; UHF oscillators; bipolar integrated circuits; copper; inductors; low-power electronics; micromechanical devices; microwave oscillators; voltage-controlled oscillators; 2 to 3 GHz; 2.78 GHz; 6.3 mW; 600 kHz; CMOS inductance-capacitance voltage-controlled oscillator; Cu; MEMS VCO; MEMS inductors; high-Q micro-electromechanical systems inductors; low-phase-noise LC VCO; low-power LC VCO; BiCMOS integrated circuits; CMOS process; CMOS technology; Chaotic communication; Energy consumption; Inductors; Micromechanical devices; Phase noise; Voltage; Voltage-controlled oscillators; Micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS); voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs);

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Microwave and Wireless Components Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1531-1309

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LMWC.2005.850565

Filename

1435448