A 0.4V 4.8μW 16MHz CMOS crystal oscillator achieving 74-fold startup-time reduction using momentary detuning

For ultra-low-power radios, the long startup time of the crystal oscillator dominates their on-off latency and limits their power efficiency. This paper describes the design of a 65nm CMOS 16MHz crystal oscillator, featuring a momentary detuning scheme to accelerate the startup transient. Specifically, during the startup phase, the bias current (266μA) and loading capacitors (8.5pF each) are enlarged concurrently such that the equivalent negative resistance of the oscillation loop can be momentarily enhanced, resulting in 74-fold reduction of the startup time (37ms → 0.5ms), while consuming just 53.2nJ at 0.4V. Also, a time-based controller automatically drives the oscillator into the steady state, which entails a smaller bias current (12μA) to sustain the oscillation, and smaller loading capacitors (5pF) to recover the proper oscillating frequency. The simulated phase noise exhibits -128.2dBc/Hz at 1kHz offset, resulting in a FoM of 265.5dBc/Hz.