Substrate noise coupling effect characterization for RF CMOS LC VCOs

Author

Magierowski, Sebastian ; Iniewski, Kris ; Siu, Chris

Author_Institution

Dept. of ECE, Calgary Univ., Alta., Canada

fYear

2005

Firstpage

199

Lastpage

202

Abstract

A generic, mixed-mode 0.18-μm substrate is studied using a finite-element device simulator. The isolation properties of the device are extracted for guard ring structures of varying width. The effect of the substrate filtering on randomly switching noise is studied in the context of a 5-GHz CMOS LC-VCO´s phase noise performance. Poor high frequency noise damping (∼ -20 dB) in the substrate due to inductive blocking is responsible for significant degradation of oscillator phase noise in simulation. Measurement results of wideband substrate noise effects on oscillator phase noise are included.

Keywords

CMOS integrated circuits; circuit simulation; finite element analysis; integrated circuit noise; microwave oscillators; mixed analogue-digital integrated circuits; phase noise; radiofrequency integrated circuits; voltage-controlled oscillators; 0.18 micron; 5 GHz; RF CMOS LC VCO; finite-element device simulator; generic mixed-mode substrate; inductive blocking; oscillator phase noise; substrate filtering; substrate noise coupling effect; switching noise; voltage-controlled oscillators; wideband substrate noise effects; Damping; Degradation; Filtering; Finite element methods; Noise measurement; Oscillators; Phase measurement; Phase noise; Radio frequency; Wideband;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

IEEE-NEWCAS Conference, 2005. The 3rd International

Print_ISBN

0-7803-8934-4

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/NEWCAS.2005.1496758

Filename

1496758