A 45-GHz Rotary-Wave Voltage-Controlled Oscillator

A millimeter-wave rotary-wave oscillator (RWO) is presented that hybridizes standing- and traveling-wave behavior. This paper presents an analysis of the phase noise of this RWO. The multiphase voltage-controlled RWO is implemented in a 0.12-μm SiGe BiCMOS process using only nMOS devices for the oscillator core. The measured frequency of operation is 45 GHz with 6.5% tuning range and has a phase noise of -91 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz and -112 dBc/Hz at 10 MHz. The power consumption of the oscillator core is 13.8 mW from a supply voltage of 1.2 V.