A 100 /spl mu/W, 1.9GHz oscillator with fully digital frequency tuning

Abstract

A 1.9GHz CMOS digitally controlled oscillator (DCO) is designed in a standard 0.13/spl mu/m process, targeting ultra low power frequency synthesizers for wireless sensor network transceivers. The oscillator exploits subthreshold device operation and a low 0.5V supply to achieve power consumption of only 100/spl mu/W. A novel switched capacitor configuration is employed to realize a frequency resolution of 200 kHz with a tuning range of 150MHz. High quality bondwire inductors also reduce power consumption. The phase noise is -114dBc/Hz at 1MHz offset, achieving performance competitive with other published work.