An eight-phase voltage controlled oscillator with reflection-type modulators in 0.18-μm CMOS technology

This paper describes a fully integrated eightphase voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) with reflection-type modulators in 0.18-μm CMOS Technology. The characterization of the amplitude and phase errors is successfully demonstrated using the proposed innovative method. The eight-phase VCO achieves a low phase noise of −117.1 dBc/Hz at 1-MHz offset frequency. For the characterization of the amplitude and phase errors, this circuit features a sideband suppression of better than −26 dBc and a LO suppression of better than −18 dBc. From the sideband suppression contours, the measured amplitude and phase errors of the eight-phase VCO are within 0.85 dB and 5°, respectively. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this work is the first attempt to demonstrate the characterization of the amplitude and phase errors for the eight-phase VCO.