Multi-mode wide-band 130 nm CMOS WLAN and GSM/UMTS

This paper presents a fully integrated VCO covering the requirements of four cellular phone standards GSM, DCS, PCS and UMTS as well as WLAN 802.11 a/b/g. The frequency range from 3.42 GHz up to 11.45 GHz is managed with an innovative differential switchable inductor architecture. In addition a switched capacitor array and varactors are applied for precise tuning of all necessary frequency bands. The circuit is fabricated in a 130 nm CMOS process and housed into a VQFN 48 plastic package together with a proper direct conversion Rx-frontend solution for the cellular modes. The VCO has been measured and draws less than 13 mA at a supply voltage of 1.5 V whereas the VCO core needs only 2 mA. The evaluation of the VCO was done on a FR4 board.