A 1.7-mW, 16.8% frequency tuning, 24-GHz transformer-based LC-VCO using 0.18-µm CMOS technology

A low-power, wide-tuning-range voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) using 0.18-µm CMOS technology is presented in this paper. The proposed transformer-based LC-VCO has 16.8% frequency tuning range without switching techniques. To achieve wide-tuning-range and low-power in the same time, the current-reused topology is selected to demonstrate a low-power consumption of 1.7 mW. The VCO oscillation frequency at 22.6 GHz has a phase noise of −95dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset.