A Radiation-Robust Ku-Band Ring Voltage-Controlled Oscillator in 45 nm CMOS SOI for Wideband SATCOM

This work presents a radiation-robust Ku-band ring voltage-controlled oscillator designed and fabricated in a 45 nm CMOS SOI process for use in wideband SATCOM applications. The ring oscillator is capable of tuning across the entire Ku-band with the use of analog tuning via current starving and coarse tuning via switchable capacitor banks. High output powers of >1 dBm are measured with a dc power consumption of 25.3 mW. The fabricated VCO occupies 0.38 mm
²
, including all I/O pads. The oscillator performance is also measured for its sensitivity to radiation through total ionizing dose testing up to 1 Mrad(SiO
2
), which demonstrates that the oscillator in this process is rad-hard, and suitable for operation in space environments.