Wide band voltage-controlled oscillator for multi-band multi-mode GNSS receivers

A fully integrated wide band voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) for multi-band multi-mode GNSS receivers is proposed and designed in 0.18μm CMOS topology with a 1.8V supply voltage. Dual core technique is used to achieve wide frequency tuning range and to reduce the power consumption. Complementary cross-coupled topology is chosen for lower 1/f corner and less power dispassion. The proposed dual-core VCO can oscillate from 2.15GHz to 3.78GHz, with a KVCO varied from 51MHz/V to 124MHz/V. It achieves a phase noise of -99.5dBc/Hz and -121.6dBc/Hz at 100KHz and 1MHz frequency offsets from 2.4GHz, and -96.6dBc/Hz and 119.7dBc/Hz at 100KHz and 1MHz frequency offsets from 3.2GHz, respectively. The low frequency VCO core consumes 2.60mA from a 1.8V supply, while the high frequency VCO core consumes 2.94mA.