A compact 67 GHz oscillator in 65nm CMOS

Abstract

A compact 67 GHz LC oscillator implemented in 65nm bulk CMOS technology by STMicroelectronics is presented. It exploits a three-spiral transformer to achieve low phase noise and low power consumption. The measurements show that the oscillator core is capable to operate with a supply voltage as low as 0.6 V, while consuming 3.6 mW. The measured phase noise amounts to -96 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset from the carrier when operating with 1.2 V, and -88.7 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset from the carrier when operating with 0.6 V voltage supply.