Design of voltage-controlled oscillators

Sorin Voinigescu

doi:10.1017/CBO9781139021128.011

10 - Design of voltage-controlled oscillators

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 March 2013

Sorin Voinigescu

Show author details

Sorin Voinigescu: Affiliation:
University of Toronto

Book contents

Get access

Summary

What is an oscillator?

Oscillators are critical building blocks in both wireline and wireless systems and, along with synthesizers and clock and data recovery circuits (CDR), ensure that the synchronization of all receive and transmit functions is correctly carried out.

In most practical applications, the frequency of the signal generated by the oscillator must be controllable over some range. This is typically realized with a voltage-controlled reactance element in the oscillator circuit, hence the name voltage-controlled-oscillator or, in short, VCO.

The most important design considerations for VCOs refer to their:

oscillation frequency,
frequency tuning range and VCO gain, specified in GHz/V or MHz/V,
output power, specified in mW or dBm,
phase noise, measured in dBc/Hz and specified usually at 100KHz or 1MHz offset from the carrier frequency,
frequency stability over temperature (in ppm/̊C).

VCO FUNDAMENTALS

An oscillator can generally be described as a non-linear circuit that converts DC power to an AC waveform. In most RF, microwave, mm-wave, and fiber-optic communication systems, the oscillator must provide a purely sinusoidal waveform. Therefore, the design effort is focussed on minimizing the undesired harmonics and the phase noise, and on ensuring the long-term and short-term stability of the oscillation frequency and amplitude.

Information

Type: Chapter
Information: High-Frequency Integrated Circuits , pp. 621 - 697

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139021128.011 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Cranincks, J. and Steyaert, M. S. J., “A CMOS 1.8GHz low-phase noise voltage controlled oscillator with prescaler,” IEEE ISSCC Digest, pp. 266–267, February 1995.

Sze, S. M. and Ng, Kwok K., Physics of Semiconductor Devices, Physics of Semiconductor Devices, John Wiley, 3rd Edition, 2006.

Leeson, D. B., “A simple model of feedback oscillator noise spectrum,” Proc. IEEE, 54: 329–330, February 1966.Google Scholar

ITRS 2011 wireless.

Jacobsson, H., Bao, M., Aspemyr, L., Mehrcha, A., and Carchon, G., “Low phase noise sub-1 V supply 12 and 18GHz VCOs in 90nm CMOS,” IEEE IMS Digest, pp. 573–576, June 2006.

Lee, T. H., The Design of CMOS Radio-Frequency Integrated Circuits, Cambridge, 2nd Edition, 2004, Chapter 15.

Mirzaei, A., Heidari, M. E., Bagheri, R., Chehrazi, S., and Abidi, A. A., “The quadrature LC oscillator: a complete portrait based on injection locking,” IEEE JSSC, 42: 1916–1932, September 2007.Google Scholar

Nallatamby, J.-C., Pringet, M., Camiade, M., and Obregon, J., “Phase noise in oscillators – Leeson formula revisited,” IEEE MTT, 51: 1386–1394, April 2003.Google Scholar

Dauphinee, L., Copeland, M. A., and Schvan, P., “A balanced 1.5GHz voltage-controlled oscillator with an integrated LC resonator,” IEEE ISSCC Digest, pp. 390–391, February 1997.

Kobayashi, K. W., Oki, A. K., Tran, L. T., Cowles, J. C., Guitierrez-Aitken, A., Yamada, F., Block, T. R., and Streit, D. C., “A 108GHz InP-HBT monolithic push–push VCO with low phase noise and wide tuning bandwidth,” IEEE JSSC, 34(9): 1225–1232, September 1999.Google Scholar

Voinigescu, S. P., Copeland, M. A., Marchesan, D., Popescu, P., and Maliepaard, M. C., “5GHz SiGe HBT monolithic radio transceiver with tunable filtering,” IEEE RFIC Symposium Digest, pp. 131–134, June 1999.

Voinigescu, S. P., Marchesan, D., and Copeland, M.A., “A family of monolithic inductor-varactor SiGe-HBT VCOs for 20GHz to 30GHz LMDS and fiber-optic receiver applications,” IEEE RFIC Symposium Digest, pp. 173–177, June 2000.

Li, H., and Rein, H.-M., “Millimetre-wave VCOs with wide tuning range and low phase noise, fully integrated in a SiGe bipolar technology,” IEEE JSSC, 38: 184–191, February 2003.Google Scholar

Wanner, R., Lachner, R., and Olbrich, G.R., “A SiGe monolithically integrated 75GHz push–push VCO,” Si Monolithic ICs in RF Sys. Digest, 2006, pp. 375–378.

Pohl, N., Rein, H.-M., Munsch, T., Aufinger, K., and Hausner, J., “An 80GHz SiGe bipolar VCO with wide tuning range using two simultaneously tuned varactor pairs,” IEEE CSICS Digest, pp. 193–196, October 2008.

Chang, C.-H. and Yang, C.-Y., “A low-voltage high-frequency CMOS LC VCO using a transformer feedback,” IEEE RFIC Symposium Digest, pp. 545–546, June. 2008.

Millar, D. P. M., “A two-phase audio-frequency oscillator,” J. of IEE, 74: 366–371, 1934.Google Scholar

Seok, E. Y., Cao, C., Shim, D., Arenas, D. J., Tanner, D., Hung, C.-M., and , K.K.O, “410GHz CMOS push–push oscillator with a patch antenna,” IEEE ISSCC Digest, pp. 472–473, February 2008, San Francisco, CA.

Tang, K. W., Leung, S., Tieu, N., Schvan, P., and Voinigescu, S. P., “Frequency scaling and topology comparison of mm-wave CMOS VCOs,” IEEE CSICS, pp. 55–58, November 2006.

Staszewski, R. B. and Balsara, P. T., All-digital Frequency Synthesizer in Deep-Submicron CMOS, Chapter 4, John Wiley, 2006.

Pozar, D.M, Microwave and RF Wireless Systems, Chapter 7, John Wiley & Sons, 2001.

Forstner, H.P., Wohlmuth, H.D., Knapp, H., Gamsjäger, C., Böck, J., Meister, T., and Aufinger, K., “A 19GHz DRO downconverter MMIC for 77GHz automotive radar frontends in a SiGe bipolar production technology,” IEEE BCTM Proc., pp. 117–120, October 2008.

Marcu, C., Chowdhury, D., Thakkar, C., Kong, L., Tabesh, M., Park, J., Wang, Y., Afshar, B., Gupta, A., Arbabian, A., Gambini, S., Zamani, R., Niknejad, Ali, and Alon, E., “A 90nm CMOS low-power 60GHz transceiver with integrated baseband circuitry,” IEEE ISSCC Digest, pp. xxx–xx + 1, February 2009.

Rofourgaran, A., Rael, J., Rofougaran, M., and Abidi, A., “A 900MHz CMOS LC-oscillator with quadrature outputs,” IEEE ISSCC Digest, pp. 392–393, February 1996.

Mazzanti, A., Svelto, F., and Andreani, P., “On the amplitude and phase errors of quadrature LC-tank CMOS oscillators,” IEEE JSSC, 38: 1305–1313, June . 2006.Google Scholar

Lee, J. and Razavi, B., “40Gb/s clock and data recovery circuit in 0.18μm CMOS technology,” IEEE ISSCC Digest, pp. 392–393, February 2003.

Khanpour, M., M.Sc. Thesis, University of Toronto, 2008.

Nicolson, S. T., Yau, K. H. K, Chevalier, P., Chantre, A., Sautreuil, B., Tang, K. A., and Voinigescu, S. P., “Design and scaling of W-band SiGe BiCMOS VCOs,” IEEE JSSC, 42(9): 1821–1833, September 2007.Google Scholar

Sarkas, I., Hasch, J., Balteanu, A., and Voinigescu, S., “A fundamental frequency, single-chip 120GHz SiGe BiCMOS precision distance sensor with above IC antenna operating over several meters,” IEEE MTT, 60(3): 795–812, March 2012, in print.Google Scholar

Accessibility standard: Unknown

Accessibility compliance for the PDF of this book is currently unknown and may be updated in the future.