Low phase-noise HEMT microwave voltage-controlled oscillator

Abstract

This paper presents a novel negative differential resistance (NDR) voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) for microwave applications. The VCO circuit comprises a high electron mobility field-effect transistor (HEMT) and a p-channel metal-oxide-semiconductor transistor (PMOST) current mirror (CM). The mathematical model of the proposed VCO is developed. The designed VCO uses a pseudomorphic HEMT NE3210S01 and four 0.18μm PMOSTs. The implemented 275.87MHz oscillator draws 4.2 mA from a 3.3 V power supply and generates low-noise low-distortion signal.