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A translinear SiGe BiCMOS current-controlled oscillator with 80 Hz–800 MHz tuning range

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Abstract

A 3-phase current controlled sinusoidal oscillator, tunable over a wide range of frequencies is presented. The oscillator comprises a ring of 3 cascaded differential G m  − C low-pass filter stages, implemented in a fully translinear, NPN-only circuit. Closed-form analytical expressions are derived to quantify both frequency and amplitude tuning, as a function of two current biases. Experimental results from a 0.5 μm SiGe BiCMOS chip demonstrate 7 decades of tuning range, from 80 Hz to 800 MHz, as well as low harmonic distortion. Power consumption scales with oscillation frequency, measuring 2 μW/MHz The circuit serves a range of applications including agile communications, analog built-in self-test, stochastic adaptive control, spectroscopy, and bioinstrumentation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Biological Sciences, University of California, San Diego, CA, 92093, USA

    Dimitrios N. Loizos & Gert Cauwenberghs

  2. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, 21218, USA

    Dimitrios N. Loizos & Paul P. Sotiriadis

Authors
  1. Dimitrios N. Loizos
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  2. Paul P. Sotiriadis
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  3. Gert Cauwenberghs
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dimitrios N. Loizos.

Additional information

Chip fabrication was provided by MOSIS through the MOSIS Educational Program.

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Loizos, D.N., Sotiriadis, P.P. & Cauwenberghs, G. A translinear SiGe BiCMOS current-controlled oscillator with 80 Hz–800 MHz tuning range. Analog Integr Circ Sig Process 57, 107–115 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10470-008-9185-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10470-008-9185-6

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