A 4.39–5.26 GHz LC-Tank CMOS Voltage-Controlled Oscillator With Small VCO-Gain Variation

Abstract

A wide band CMOS LC-tank voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) with small VCO gain ( <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">KVCO</i> ) variation was developed. For small <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">KVCO</i> variation, serial capacitor bank was added to the LC-tank with parallel capacitor array. Implemented in a 0.18 mum CMOS RF technology, the proposed VCO can be tuned from 4.39 GHz to 5.26 GHz with the VCO gain variation less than 9.56%. While consuming 3.5 mA from a 1.8 V supply, the VCO has -113.65 dBc/Hz phase noise at 1 MHz offset from the carrier.