A High-Efficiency, High-Power Millimeter-Wave Oscillator Using a Feedback Class-E Power Amplifier in 45 nm CMOS

Author

Juntunen, Eric ; Dawn, Debasis ; Pinel, Stephane ; Laskar, Joy

Author_Institution

Sch. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Georgia Electron. Design Center, Atlanta, GA, USA

Volume

21

Issue

8

fYear

2011

Firstpage

430

Lastpage

432

Abstract

A high-efficiency high-power millimeter-wave oscillator was implemented in IBM 45 nm silicon-on-insulator (SOI) CMOS using a class-E power amplifier in a feedback configuration. The oscillator achieves a peak output power of +4.6 dBm, a peak efficiency of 11.54%, and phase noises of -106.61 dBc/Hz and -131.28 dBc/Hz at 1 and 10 MHz offsets, respectively. All matching circuits and inductive elements are realized on-chip with transmission line for application in the millimeter-wave frequency bands. The oscillator is tunable between 41.08 GHz and 42.87 GHz by using a λ/4 stub terminated with a varactor in the feedback path. The circuit achieves the highest reported efficiency and output power for silicon-based monolithic millimeter-wave oscillators to the best of the authors´ knowledge.

Keywords

CMOS analogue integrated circuits; feedback amplifiers; millimetre wave oscillators; millimetre wave power amplifiers; phase noise; silicon-on-insulator; transmission lines; varactors; IBM; SOI CMOS; efficiency 11.54 percent; feedback class-E power amplifier; feedback configuration; feedback path; frequency 1 MHz; frequency 10 MHz; frequency 41.08 GHz to 42.87 GHz; high-efficiency high-power millimeter-wave oscillator; inductive elements; matching circuits; millimeter-wave frequency bands; peak efficiency; peak output power; phase noises; silicon-based monolithic millimeter-wave oscillators; silicon-on-insulator CMOS; size 45 nm; transmission line; varactor; CMOS integrated circuits; Millimeter wave radar; Phase noise; Power generation; Tuning; CMOS; Class-E; millimeter-wave; oscillator; power amplifier (PA);

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Microwave and Wireless Components Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1531-1309

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LMWC.2011.2157334

Filename

5944990