A stable U-band VCO in 65 nm CMOS with-0.11 dBm high output power

Abstract

A high output power voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) in the U-band was implemented using a 65 nm CMOS process. The proposed VCO used a transmission line to increase output voltage swing and overcome the limitations of CMOS technologies. Two varactor banks were used for fine tuning with a 5% frequency tuning range. The proposed VCO showed small variation in output voltage and operated at 51.55-54.18 GHz. The measured phase noises were -51.53 dBc/Hz, -91.84 dBc/Hz, and -101.07 dBc/Hz at offset frequencies of 10 kHz, 1 MHz, and 10 MHz, respectively, with stable output power. The chip area, including the output buffer, is 0.16x0.16 mm(2) and the maximum output power was -0.11 dBm. The power consumption was 33.4 mW with a supply voltage of 1.2-V. The measured FOMP was -190.8 dBc/Hz.