Design of low-voltage, low-power, wide-band CMOS LC VCO using active inductors

Abstract

In this thesis the design of low-voltage, low-power, wide-band CMOS LC VCO using active inductor has been proposed. The oscillator is based upon the classic LC-tuned negative-resistance topology, with a novel active inductor using a low-voltage gyrator topology with a feedback resistance, where feedback resistance is realized by a NMOS operating in triode region whose bias voltage tunes the inductance of the active inductor and hence the frequency of VCO. The simulation results shows that this VCO operates in a 1.19 GHz to 2.49 GHz , while consuming 1.09 mW from a 1.2V power supply. The VCO’s phase noise level is -86.9 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset from a 1.55 GHz carrier. The deviation of the phase noise is 11.5 dBc/Hz during this tuning range. All the circuit simulations of VCO were simulated in SpectreRF using TSMC 0.18μm CMOS technology.