A low phase noise low dc power quadrature voltage-controlled oscillator using a 0.18-µm CMOS process

This paper describes a low phase noise low dc power quadrature voltage controlled oscillator (QVCO) with a reflection-type IQ modulator. The QVCO using a standard bulk 0.18-mum CMOS process achieves a low phase noise of -115 dBc/Hz at 1-MHz offset frequency, a figure of merit (FOM) of - 191 dBc/Hz, and a core dc power consumption of 5.8 mW with a supply voltage of 1.8 V. The tuning frequency of the QVCO is from 13.4 to 14.4 GHz. The amplitude and phase errors of the QVCO are within 0.5 dB and 3deg, respectively. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this work demonstrates the best FOM among all the reported Si-based QVCOs above 10 GHz.