A fully-integrated dual-band VCO with power controlled by body voltage in 130nm CMOS/SOI

Abstract

In this paper, a dual-band VCO for wireless applications in CMOS/SOI technology using body voltage to control power consumption and phase noise performance is presented. A new architecture for multi-standards applications is proposed. To our knowledge, this is the first structure using this method to control VCO core current. Two standards are covered by this structure, Bluetooth (2.45GHz) and 802.11a (5.8GHz). The VCO's tuning range can vary from 2.45GHz up to 5.8GHz. The main idea is to use only two MOS varactor to cover the entire frequency span. The first one is needed to get the matched frequency variation and the second one to adjust the oscillation frequency. The realisation of such VCO is possible thanks to CMOS/SOI technology advantages, high-Q passives and body voltage biasing that allows changing current and power dissipation in the VCO core. At 200kHz offset, the measured phase noise is -94dBc/Hz and -96dBc/Hz at 5.7GHz and 2.45GHz respectively.