Low-power voltage-controlled oscillators in 90-nm CMOS using high-quality thin-film postprocessed inductors

Author

Linten, Dimitri ; Sun, Xiao ; Carchon, Geert ; Jeamsaksiri, Wutthinan ; Mercha, Abdelkarim ; Ramos, Javier ; Jenei, Snezana ; Wambacq, Piet ; Dehan, Morin ; Aspemyr, Lars ; Scholten, Andries J. ; Decoutere, Stefaan ; Donnay, Stéphane ; Raedt, Walter De

Volume

40

Issue

9

fYear

2005

Firstpage

1922

Lastpage

1931

Abstract

Wafer-level packaging (WLP) technology offers novel opportunities for the realization of high-quality on-chip passives needed in RF front-ends. This paper demonstrates a thin-film WLP technology on top of a 90-nm RF CMOS process with one 15-GHz and two low-power 5-GHz voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs) using a high-quality WLP or above-IC inductor. The 5-GHz VCOs have a power consumption of 0.33 mW and a phase noise of -115 dBc/Hz and -111 dBc/Hz at 1-MHz offset, respectively, and the 15-GHz VCO has a phase noise of -105 dBc/Hz at 1-MHz offset with a power consumption of 2.76 mW.

Keywords

CMOS integrated circuits; MMIC oscillators; integrated circuit packaging; low-power electronics; thin film inductors; voltage-controlled oscillators; 0.33 mW; 15 GHz; 2.76 mW; 5 GHz; 90 nm; RF CMOS process; RF front-ends; above-IC inductor; low-power voltage-controlled oscillators; on-chip passives; phase noise; power consumption; thin-film postprocessed inductors; wafer-level packaging; CMOS process; CMOS technology; Dielectric substrates; Energy consumption; Packaging; Radio frequency; Sun; Thin film inductors; Voltage-controlled oscillators; Wafer scale integration; Above IC; CMOS; inductor; radio frequency (RF); voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO); wafer-level packaging (WLP);

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Solid-State Circuits, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9200

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JSSC.2005.848144

Filename

1501992