Design of LC-VCO for low power narrowband electronic applications

A low power, low phase-noise Inductance Capacitance voltage controlled oscillator (LC-VCO) is demonstrated on 180 nm CMOS Technology node. By using external current biasing it is not feasible to obtain low power and noise characteristic simultaneously. Therefore, low power and low phase noise characteristics are achieved by using the current mirror is being used. Also to reduce the power modifications is being done in the traditional LC-VCO structure. The VCO designed is operating at 12.5 GHz with tuning range of 7.75% which will useful for wireless narrowband applications. The phase noise attained is -117 dBc/Hz at 1 kHz offset from 12.5 GHz oscillation frequency. The power dissipation is 0.1114 mW for 1.8 V supply voltage. The figure of merit for this LC-VCO is nearly 175. The present oscillator is the best amongst the various CMOS oscillators referred to from literature in terms of the power dissipation and frequency of oscillation.