Electrical engineering

Physics

Transistor

Offset (computer science)

CMOS

Voltage-controlled oscillator

Phase noise

Figure of merit

Photon upconversion

Engineering

Voltage

Materials science

Programming language

Computer science

Optoelectronics

Doping

IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits

Class-C operation is leveraged to implement a K-band CMOS voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) where the upconversion of 1/f current noise from the cross-coupled transistors in the oscillator core is robustly contained at a very low level. Implemented in a bulk 28-nm CMOS technology, the 12%-tuning-range VCO shows a phase noise as low as -112 dBc/Hz at 1-MHz offset (-86 dBc/Hz at 100 kHz offset) from a 19.5 GHz carrier while consuming 20.7 mW, achieving a figure of merit (FoM) of -185 dBc/Hz. The design is complemented by a theoretical investigation of 1/f noise upconversion caused by short-channel effects in the cross-coupled transistors, obtaining the first instance of a closed-form phase noise expression in the 1/f <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sup> region.

A 19.5-GHz 28-nm Class-C CMOS VCO, With a Reasonably Rigorous Result on 1/<i>f</i> Noise Upconversion Caused by Short-Channel Effects

A 19.5-GHz 28-nm Class-C CMOS VCO, With a Reasonably Rigorous Result on 1/f Noise Upconversion Caused by Short-Channel Effects