Low-power low-phase-noise differentially tuned quadrature VCO design in standard CMOS

Author

Tiebout, Marc

Author_Institution

Dept. of Wireless Products, Technol. & Innovatio, Infineon Technol. AG, Munich, Germany

Volume

36

Issue

7

fYear

2001

fDate

7/1/2001 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1018

Lastpage

1024

Abstract

This paper describes the design and optimization of VCOs with quadrature outputs. Systematic design of fully integrated LC-VCOs with a high inductance tank leads to a cross-coupled double core LC-VCO as the optimal solution in terms of power consumption. Furthermore, a novel fully differential frequency tuning concept is introduced to ease high integration. The concepts are verified with a 0.25-μm standard CMOS fully integrated quadrature VCO for zero- or low-IF DCS1800, DECT, or GSM receivers. At 2.5-V power supply voltage and a total power dissipation of 20 mW, the quadrature VCO features a worst-case phase noise of -143 dBc/Hz at 3-MHz frequency offset over the tuning range. The oscillator is tuned from 1.71 to 1.99 GHz through a differential nMOS/pMOS varactor input

Keywords

CMOS analogue integrated circuits; UHF integrated circuits; UHF oscillators; cellular radio; circuit tuning; cordless telephone systems; integrated circuit noise; low-power electronics; phase noise; radio receivers; voltage-controlled oscillators; 1.71 to 1.99 GHz; 2.5 V; 20 mW; DCS1800 receivers; DECT receivers; GSM receivers; IF receivers; VCO design; cross-coupled double core LC-VCO; differential nMOS/pMOS varactor input; frequency offset; fully differential frequency tuning; fully integrated LC-VCO; high inductance tank; low-phase-noise; low-power VCO; lumped circuit model; optimization; power consumption; quadrature output; standard CMOS; worst-case phase noise; Design optimization; Energy consumption; Frequency; GSM; Inductance; Power dissipation; Power supplies; Tuning; Voltage; Voltage-controlled oscillators;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Solid-State Circuits, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9200

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/4.933456

Filename

933456