Sub-1mW RF Voltage Controlled Oscillator Design Optimization for IoT

This paper presents a sub-1mW radiofrequency voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) design optimization approach. The relation between components and specifications of the LC-VCO is studied, which allows to easily identify its design trade-offs. This approach has been applied to optimize the design of two different topologies of sub-1mW LC-VCOs in 130nm CMOS process suitable for IoT applications. The first VCO is using the current-reused technique and the second one is based on CMOS cross-coupled topology operating in the sub-threshold region. Post-layout simulation results in both circuits show a total power consumption of only $136\mu \mathrm {W}$ and $267\mu \mathrm {W}$ with a phase noise of-114dBc/Hz @lMHz at the operation frequency of 2.4GHz.