A low phase noise wide-tuning range class-F VCO based on a dual-mode resonator in 65nm CMOS

Abstract

This paper presents a low phase noise wide tuning range Class-F voltage controlled oscillator using a dual-mode resonator. In comparison to other conventional wideband oscillators the proposed capacitively/inductively-coupled resonator will integrate the benefits of Class-F voltage control oscillators and dual-mode switching networks to obtain simultaneous low phase noise and wide-tuning range. The proposed structure prototyped in a 65nm TSMC CMOS technology, shows a 2.14–4.22GHz continuous tuning range, phase noise figure-of-merit (FoM) of 192.7dB at 2.3GHz and better than 188dB across the entire operating frequency range. The oscillator consumes 15–16.4mW from a 0.6V supply and occupies an active area of 0.7mm2.