Circular-Geometry Oscillators

R. Aparicio and A. Hajimiri

A 5.3GHz 0.18μm CMOS circular-geometry oscillator exploits high Q of slab inductors. The oscillator draws 10mA from 1.4V with a phase noise of -147.3dBc/Hz at 10MHz offset. A second 5.4GHz circular-geometry VCO has a tuning range of 8% with phase noise of -142.2dBc/Hz at 10MHz offset while drawing 12mA from a 1.8V supply.