Low phase‐noise high output power 176‐GHz voltage‐controlled oscillator in a 130‐nm BiCMOS technology. Issue 14 (30th August 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Bello, Habeeb; Pantoli, Leonardo; Ng, Herman Jalli; Kissinger, Dietmar; Leuzzi, Giorgio
• Is Part Of: IET microwaves, antennas & propagation. Volume 13:Issue 14(2019)
• Page Start: 2490
• Page End: 2494
• Publication Date: 2019-08-30
• Subjects: phase noise -- Ge‐Si alloys -- voltage‐controlled oscillators -- integrated circuit design -- BiCMOS integrated circuits -- bipolar MIMIC -- MMIC oscillators -- millimetre wave transistors; VCO -- Colpitts core topology -- cascade output buffer -- differential fundamental wave tunable oscillator -- transistor‐based LC‐resonator -- DC power consumption -- measured phase‐noise -- SiGe BiCMOS technology -- on‐wafer measurements -- low phase‐noise high output power -- voltage‐controlled oscillator -- IHP foundry -- size 130.0 nm -- voltage 1.6 V -- voltage 1.4 V -- frequency 10.0 MHz -- power 82.0 mW -- power 52.0 mW -- frequency 171.0 GHz to 179.5 GHz -- SiGe; Microwaves -- Periodicals; Microwave antennas -- Periodicals; Antennas (Electronics) -- Periodicals; Radio wave propagation -- Periodicals; Microwave communication systems -- Periodicals; 621.381305
• DOI: 10.1049/iet-map.2019.0397
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1751-8725

Abstract

Abstract : In this study, the authors present the design and measurement results of a voltage‐controlled oscillator (VCO) that is based on a Colpitts core topology and a cascade output buffer. The circuit has a centre frequency of 176 GHz and is implemented in a 130 nm SiGe BiCMOS technology provided by IHP foundry. The VCO is a differential fundamental wave tunable oscillator that makes use of a transistor‐based LC‐resonator. On‐wafer measurements show a tuning range of about 5% from 171 to 179.5 GHz. The circuit achieves a maximum output power of 7.3 dBm when biased at 1.6 V and 6.5 dBm if biased at 1.4 V, both with an efficiency of ∼ 6.6%. DC power consumption is 82 and 52 mW, respectively. The measured phase‐noise of the VCO is − 110 dBc/Hz at 10 MHz offset. The VCO demonstrates state‐of‐the‐art performance at these frequencies with very good performance in term of output power, efficiency linearity, phase noise and compactness; in addition, thanks to the proposed architecture it shows high integrability at the system level.