A K-band low phase noise and wide tuning range LC VCO

Design of a 23-GHz cross-coupled voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) based on a 1μm GaAs heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) technology is reported in this work. This differential VCO employs a cross-coupled structure and a common-emitter (CE) configuration. Simulation and layout design are completed with simulation software ADS and cadence respectively. With V
_CC
of 6V and dc power consumption of 60mW, the VCO has a phase noise of -104.674dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset. The VCO exhibits an output power of 10.179dBm, leading to a FoM of -176.5dBc/Hz and a tuning range of 1.89 GHz (22 to 23.89 GHz). The layout size is 0.7mm×0.7mm.