Study of Reducing Phase Error in QVCO RFIC Using Generalized Locking Equation

Abstract

This paper concerns the accuracy of the quadrature phase that is generated by a S-band quadrature voltage control oscillator (QVCO) using a generalized locking equation. The main purpose of external injection is to reduce the phase error of the QVCO by suppressing the magnitude of the instantaneous beat frequency that is associated with a sinusoidal injection signal. The designed QVCO is based on a parallel-coupled QVCO with an integrated LC tank. The QVCO is implemented using the TSMC 0.18 μm CMOS standard process. Measurements of the injection-locked QVCO are made, revealing that the phase error are reduced from 2.44° to 0.32°. The reductions of the phase error is 2.12°. The supply voltage that is applied to the injection-locked QVCO is only 1.1 V and the power consumption is 20.5 mW.