Voltage-controlled oscillator

About: Voltage-controlled oscillator is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 23896 publications have been published within this topic receiving 231875 citations. The topic is also known as: VCO.

A packaged 1.1-GHz CMOS VCO with phase noise of -126 dBc/Hz at a 600-kHz offset

Abstract: A packaged 1.1-GHz CMOS voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) with measured phase noise of -92, -112, and -126 dBc/Hz at 10-, 100-, and 600-kHz offsets is demonstrated. According to J. Craninekx et al. (1997), these satisfy the GSM requirements. The extrapolated phase noise at a 3 MHz offset is -140 dBc/Hz. The power consumption is 6.8 and 12.7 mW at V/sub DD/=1.5 and 2.7 V, respectively. The VCO is implemented in a low-cost 0.8-/spl mu/m foundry CMOS process, which uses p+ substrates with a p-epitaxial layer. Buried channel PMOS transistors are exclusively used for lower 1/f noise. The inductors for the LC tanks are implemented using a series combination of an on-chip spiral inductor, four bond wires, and two package leads to increase Q. This technique requires no extra board space beyond that needed for the additional package leads.

Controlled frequency signal source apparatus including a feedback path for the reduction of phase noise

Abstract: A low phase noise signal source is disclosed which incorporates a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) and a feedback network that, in effect, demodulates the VCO output signal and supplies negative feedback representative of the VCO signal noise to the VCO frequency control terminal. The feedback network includes a frequency discriminator of the type wherein a time delay network is connected to one input port of a phase detector, with the VCO output signal being supplied to the time delay network and the second input port of the phase detector. A variable phase shifter, responsive to the signal supplied by the phase detector, is included in one of the phase detector input paths to cause a zero crossover of the frequency discriminator transfer characteristic to occur at the frequency to which the VCO is tuned. By establishing predetermined relationships between the transmission poles and zeroes of the feedback network, normal VCO tuning characteristics are preserved while simultaneously decreasing VCO phase noise. Various arrangements for operating the signal source over a wide band of output frequencies are disclosed, including a low-noise phase-locked loop frequency synthesizer.

Digitally controlled timing recovery loop

Abstract: A digitally controlled timing recovery loop is comprised of a digitally controlled Phase Locked Loop (PLL) consisting of a phase detector, loop filter, and voltage controlled oscillator (VCO). The phase detector is a multi-point sampling phase comparator. The loop filter is comprised of a data independent smoothing filter and a command sequencer. The VCO is a digitally controlled ring oscillator with clock phase selection. The timing recovery loop tolerates a relatively large amount of incoming jitter and minimizes data dependent, ISI-induced, intrinsic jitter.

Influence of novel MOS varactors on the performance of a fully integrated UMTS VCO in standard 0.25-/spl mu/m CMOS technology

Abstract: A novel MOS varactor design is compared to standard MOS varactors and its influence on the tuning range, phase noise, and pushing of a CMOS voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) for UMTS is presented. Three fully integrated CMOS VCOs have been fabricated in standard 0.25-/spl mu/m technology, two with different versions of a novel device, and one with a conventional nMOSFET as the tuning element. All of the fully integrated VCOs fulfill UNITS tuning and phase noise specifications with a power consumption of only 7.5 mW at a 2.5-V power supply. The new varactors outperform the nMOSFET by increasing the frequency tuning from /spl plusmn/7% to /spl plusmn/11% or /spl plusmn/13%, while the measured phase noise of all three VCOs is -117 dBc/Hz at a 1 MHz offset from a 4-GHz carrier.

An Ultra-Compact Differentially Tuned 6-GHz CMOS LC-VCO With Dynamic Common-Mode Feedback

Abstract: A fully integrated 0.024 mm2 differentially tuned 6-GHz LC-VCO for 6+Gb/s high-speed serial (HSS) links in 90-nm bulk CMOS is presented. It is smaller than any LC-VCO reported to date at this frequency. Its size is comparable with ring oscillators but it has significantly better phase noise. A circuit technique is introduced to dynamically set the common-mode (CM) voltage of the differential varactor control signals equal to the VCO's CM. Compared to other commonly used techniques such as replica biasing, this technique does not dissipate any extra power and it accurately tracks the output common-mode voltage of the VCO during the oscillations. Using a differential control a very wide tuning range from 4.5 GHz to 7.1 GHz (45%) is achieved. The VCO has a measured phase noise of -117.7 dBc/Hz at a 3-MHz offset from a 5.63-GHz carrier while dissipating 14 mW from a 1.6-V supply.