Recent developments in standing-wave oscillator design: review

The paper summarizes the most recent advances in wave-based oscillator design, reviewing various manifestations of the traveling-wave oscillator and the standing-wave oscillator. We then review and analyze our latest development of standing-wave oscillator design utilizing wave-adaptive tapered transmission lines (Andress, W. and Ham, D., IEEE VLSI Symp., 2004). This structure lowers phase noise through loss-reducing shaping of the transmission line, such that it is adapted to the position-dependent standing wave amplitudes. Demonstrating the benefits of standing-wave-based operations, this novel design concept boosts the potential for the emergence of standing-wave oscillators as a useful alternative to the traditional LC oscillator.