A 25% Tuning Range 7.5-9.4 GHz Oscillator With 194 FoM_Tand 400 kHz 1/f Corner in 40nm CMOS Technology

An 8-GHz VCO with class-F23 operation was realized in a 40 nm CMOS technology without ultra-thick metals. The class-F23 operation was enabled in a transformer-based LC tank to allow multiple impedance peaks in the common mode (CM) and the differential mode (DM) excitation. With the additional resonance at $2^{nd}$ and $3^{rd}$ harmonic frequency, the circuit noise to phase-noise conversion and 1/f noise up-conversion are reduced significantly. In a 40 nm CMOS technology without ultra-thick metal, a patterned shielding structure was proposed to improve the inductor quality factor. A combined varactor and capacitor array is proposed to provide accurate matching for a desired resonance frequency ratio, reducing AM-FM conversion and it achieves a broad tuning range. With the proposed transformer-based LC bank and class-F23 operation, the oscillator achieves a phase noise of -150.8 dBc/Hz at 10 MHz offset from a 1.85 GHz carrier after an on-chip /4 divider, and the measured 1/f3 flicker noise corner is around 400 kHz. The oscillator core covers a 7.5-9.4 GHz frequency range for a 25% tuning range.</p

RF CMOS Oscillators for Modern Wireless Applications

While mobile phones enjoy the largest production volume ever of any consumer electronics products, the demands they place on radio-frequency (RF) transceivers are particularly aggressive, especially on integration with digital processors, low area, low power consumption, while being robust against process-voltage-temperature variations. Since mobile terminals inherently operate on batteries, their power budget is severely constrained. To keep up with the ever increasing data-rate, an ever-decreasing power per bit is required to maintain the battery lifetime. The RF oscillator is the second most power-hungry block of a wireless radio (after power amplifiers). Consequently, any power reduction in an RF oscillator will greatly benefit the overall power efficiency of the cellular transceiver. Moreover, the RF oscillators' purity limits the transceiver performance. The oscillator's phase noise results in power leakage into adjacent channels in a transmit mode and reciprocal mixing in a receive mode. On the other hand, the multi-standard and multi-band transceivers that are now trending demand wide tuning range oscillators. However, broadening the oscillator’s tuning range is usually at the expense of die area (cost) or phase noise. The main goal of this book is to bring forth the exciting and innovative RF oscillator structures that demonstrate better phase noise performance, lower cost, and higher power efficiency than currently achievable. Technical topics discussed in RF CMOS Oscillators for Modern Wireless Applications include: Design and analysis of low phase-noise class-F oscillators Analyze a technique to reduce 1/f noise up-conversion in the oscillators Design and analysis of low power/low voltage oscillators Wide tuning range oscillators Reliability study of RF oscillators in nanoscale CMO

RF CMOS Oscillators for Modern Wireless Applications

While mobile phones enjoy the largest production volume ever of any consumer electronics products, the demands they place on radio-frequency (RF) transceivers are particularly aggressive, especially on integration with digital processors, low area, low power consumption, while being robust against process-voltage-temperature variations. Since mobile terminals inherently operate on batteries, their power budget is severely constrained. To keep up with the ever increasing data-rate, an ever-decreasing power per bit is required to maintain the battery lifetime. The RF oscillator is the second most power-hungry block of a wireless radio (after power amplifiers). Consequently, any power reduction in an RF oscillator will greatly benefit the overall power efficiency of the cellular transceiver. Moreover, the RF oscillators' purity limits the transceiver performance. The oscillator's phase noise results in power leakage into adjacent channels in a transmit mode and reciprocal mixing in a receive mode. On the other hand, the multi-standard and multi-band transceivers that are now trending demand wide tuning range oscillators. However, broadening the oscillator’s tuning range is usually at the expense of die area (cost) or phase noise. The main goal of this book is to bring forth the exciting and innovative RF oscillator structures that demonstrate better phase noise performance, lower cost, and higher power efficiency than currently achievable. Technical topics discussed in RF CMOS Oscillators for Modern Wireless Applications include: Design and analysis of low phase-noise class-F oscillators Analyze a technique to reduce 1/f noise up-conversion in the oscillators Design and analysis of low power/low voltage oscillators Wide tuning range oscillators Reliability study of RF oscillators in nanoscale CMO