60 GHz VCO with wideband tuning range fabricated on VLSI SOI CMOS technology

Abstract

A 60 GHz cross-coupled differential LC CMOS VCO is presented in this paper, which is optimized for a large frequency tuning range using conventional MOSFET varactors. The MMIC is fabricated on digital 90 nm SOI technology and requires a circuit area of less than 0.1 mm2 including the 50 Ω output buffers. Within a frequency control range from 52.3 GHz to 60.6 GHz, a supply voltage of 1.5 V and a supply current of 14 mA, the circuit delivers a very constant output power of -6.8 ± 0.2 dBm and yields a phase noise between -85 to -92 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz frequency offset.