ABSTRACT

The performance of a Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO) is critical to meet the requirements of various wireless standards. This study highlights the use of a tunable active inductor (TAI) to build a VCO with a UMC 0.18 µm process. The exclusion of the MOS varactor and the use of minimal transistors in the design provide significant improvement in the overall silicon area. The proposed single-ended TAI with the feedback resistor achieves a good quality factor (Q) and wide inductive bandwidth. The proposed tunable active inductor involves a power dissipation of 310 µW at V_b = 0.8 V. The use of two symmetrical active inductors in the design of VCO gives a tuning range from 754 MHz to 1.89 GHz. The obtained tuning range can meet the requirement of L-band applications & IEEE 802.11ah standards. The total power consumption range under 1.0 supply voltage (V_dd) from 2.01 to 2.68 mW when the control voltage (V_b) is increased from 0.2 to 2.0 V. The phase noise and figure of merit (FOM) obtained at 1 MHz relative frequency from the carrier were -89.64 dBc/Hz and -150.4, respectively. The total layout area consumed by VCO with and without pad-frame was 43.03 µm$\times$ 39.04 µm and 22.11 µm$\times$ 15.43 µm, respectively, which is very low as compared to spiral inductor based VCO. Corner analysis, Monte Carlo analysis, temperature sweep analysis, and Stability analysis were carried out to validate the reliability and robustness of the VCO.

摘要

压控振荡器 (VCO) 的性能对于满足各种无线标准的要求至关重要。本研究重点介绍了使用可调有源电感器 (TAI) 来构建采用 UMC 0.18 µm 工艺的 VCO。在设计中排除 MOS 变容二极管和使用最少的晶体管可显着改善整个硅面积。所提出的带有反馈电阻的单端 TAI 实现了良好的品质因数 (Q) 和宽电感带宽。_{所提出的可调有源电感器在 V b}处的功耗为 310 µW = 0.8 V。在 VCO 设计中使用两个对称的有源电感器提供了从 754 MHz 到 1.89 GHz 的调谐范围。获得的调谐范围可以满足L波段应用和IEEE 802.11ah标准的要求。_{当控制电压 (V b} ) 从 0.2 增加到 2.0 V时，1.0 电源电压 (V _dd )下的总功耗范围为 2.01 到 2.68 mW 。在 1 MHz 相对频率下获得的相位噪声和品质因数 (FOM)来自载波的分别为 -89.64 dBc/Hz 和 -150.4。带和不带焊盘框架的 VCO 消耗的总布局面积为 43.03 µm$\times$39.04 µm 和 22.11 µm$\times$分别为 15.43 µm，与基于螺旋电感的 VCO 相比非常低。进行角点分析、蒙特卡罗分析、温度扫描分析和稳定性分析，以验证 VCO 的可靠性和稳健性。