Low power 10 GHz ring VCO using source capacitively coupled current amplifier in 0.12 (mu)m CMOS technology

A 10 GHz ring voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) has been designed and implemented in 0.12 (mu)m CMOS technology. A source capacitively coupled current amplifier (SC3A) is adopted to realise this VCO. It can operate from 8.4 GHz up to 10.6 GHz with a phase noise of about -85 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz frequency offset. With the 1.5 V supply voltage, the current consumption is about 35 mA.