New low-power ICO/VCO with double cross-coupled high-speed architecture

New circuits of high-speed multivibrators have been developed and subsequently used to create a new ICO/VCO circuit. While implemented on 0.8 /spl mu/m BiCMOS (14 GHz NPN) an amplitude on the symmetrical output of 550 mV at 2 GHz, with consumption less than 3.3 mW from 1.5 V power supply can be easily achieved. The control ability of the ICO is about 2.6 MHz//spl mu/A. The low phase-noise makes the circuit also suitable for building high-speed PLLs for various applications in communications and microprocessors.