Highly accurate spurious-free integrated VCO resonator in a GSM transceiver using circuit-package co-design

We report an integrated VCO in a GSM transceiver with less than 1% frequency error in the first design and spurious-free frequency response. The first-design success with high accuracy is due to considering the package as part of the circuit design and included in optimization. The spurious-free frequency response is achieved by carefully designing a high-Q (37.5 at 1 GHz) inductor and a co-planar stripline in the VCO resonator.