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Low-phase-noise CMOS VCO with new drain–gate feedback path

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Abstract

In this paper a new LC oscillator without tail current source with an impedance transformation block (ITB) has been presented. Using this ITB, the noise generation from active devices is reduced. The cross-coupled transistors remain mostly in the saturation region and prevent decreasing of LC-tank quality factor. Moreover this structure benefits from more relaxed start-up condition as compared to the conventional LC oscillators and preserves its low phase-noise performance even in low voltage operation. This oscillator is designed and simulated in 0.18 µm CMOS process. The simulation results show that the proposed oscillator achieved a phase noise between −138.5 and −141.2 dBc/Hz at 3 MHz frequency offset with 23 % tuning range between 4.61 and 5.79 GHz. The corresponding Figure-of-merit in this tuning range is between −189.1 and −192.1 dBc/Hz which is among the best reported performance in comparison to the other state of the arts designs.

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Correspondence to Abumoslem Jannesari.

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Rezaei, M., Jannesari, A. Low-phase-noise CMOS VCO with new drain–gate feedback path. Analog Integr Circ Sig Process 88, 89–95 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10470-016-0755-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10470-016-0755-8

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