A new class-C very low phase-noise Ku-band VCO in 0.25 µm SiGe:C BiCMOS technology

Abstract

This paper presents a very low phase noise, fully integrated and differential Ku-band Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO) implemented in the QUBiC4X 0.25 μm SiGe:C BiCMOS process of NXP semiconductors. The originality of this design consists in using a new class-C architecture type. Under 5 V supply voltage and a maximum power dissipation of 123 mW, the proposed VCO features a worst case phase noise of -97 dBc/Hz at 100 kHz frequency offset from a 14.45 GHz carrier. The VCO is tuned from 13.59 GHz to 14.89 GHz with a tuning voltage varying from 1 V to 4.5 V and occupies 0.83×1.05 mm2.