Dual-Delay-Path Ring Oscillator with Self-Biased Delay Cells for Clock Generation

Abstract

This work summarizes the structure and operating features of a high-performance 3-stage dual-delay-path (DDP) voltage-controlled ring oscillator (VCRO) with self-biased delay cells for Phase-Locked Loop (PLL) structurebased clock generation and digital system driving. For a voltage supply VDD = 1.8 V, the resulting set of performance parameters include power consumption PDC = 4.68 mW and phase noise PN@1MHz = -107.8 dBc/Hz. From the trade-off involving PDC and PN, a system level high performance is obtained considering a reference figure-of-merit ( FoM = -224 dBc/Hz ). Implemented at schematic level by applying CMOS-based technology (UMC L180), the proposed VCRO was designed at Cadence environment and optimized at MunEDA WiCkeD tool.