A low phase noise Ka-band voltage controlled oscillator using 0.15 µm GaAs pHEMT technology

Abstract

A low phase noise, low dissipated power and small sized Ka-band voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO), using dual cross-coupled pair configuration and capacitance-splitting technique is presented. The Ka-band VCO circuit uses 0.15 μm GaAs pHEMT technology. The VCO has low phase noise, of -116.36 dBc/Hz, at a 1 MHz offset and can be tuned from 30.5 to 31.22 GHz. The figure of merit (FOM) is -192.36 dBc/Hz. The power consumption of the VCO with 1.04 mm2 chip area was 24 mW, from a 1 V power supply.