A low noise class-C voltage-controlled oscillator with left-handed resonator

Abstract

This letter proposes a low phase noise CMOS voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) using a left-handed (LH) LC network and a switching/tuning varactor pair. The proposed VCO has been implemented with the TSMC 0.18 μm 1P6M CMOS technology and the die area of the oscillator is 0.527 × 0.749 mm2. The VCO can generate differential signals in the high (low)-band frequency range of 6.042~6.163(4.038~4.225) GHz. The measured high (low)-band figure of merit (FOM) is -190.2 (-188.6)dBc/Hz.