Interference Signal Effects on a High-Frequency Monolithic Voltage-Controlled Oscillator: Experiments and Simulations

Abstract

This paper reflects a part of electromagnetic susceptibility studies conducted on active circuits. An electromagnetic interference (EMI) is injected on a 5 GHz monolithic voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO). This circuit is implemented on a 0.35 μm BiCMOS SiGe process. Injection locking and pulling are put in evidence when the circuit is subject to a high frequency interference with possible frequency band widened with respect to the oscillation frequency band of the VCO. A simulation process based on envelope-transient method is presented. Its main goal is to predict the behavior of the VCO under injection with interference signal power ranging from low to high level.