A phase-noise reduction technique for quadrature LC-VCO with phase-to-amplitude noise conversion

Abstract

A phase-noise reduction technique for quadrature VCOs reduces and shapes the transistor thermal noise injected into the system, and also provides a phase-to-amplitude noise conversion mechanism to further reduce phase noise. Two experimental designs provide 17% and 1% tuning ranges centered at 5.1GHz and 5.3GHz with phase noise of -132.6dBc/Hz and -134.4dBc/Hz at a 1MHz offset, respectively