Reconfigurable wideband VCOs

There are currently various mobile communication standards in use worldwide. Software-defined radio (SDR) enables the creation of multi-standard terminals, which can be flexibly used in various mobile communication systems by simply rewriting their software. The coexistence of second and third generation wireless system require multi-mode, multi-band, and multi-standard mobile communication systems, therefore, requiring a wideband source that may replace several narrow band voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) module by a single low noise wideband VCO. The VCO design approach demonstrated in this work can satisfy the present demand of tuning range and noise performance, and reconfigurable for integration in chip form. The measured phase noise is better than -120 dBc/Hz at 100 kHz offset over the tuning range (0.9 GHz-5.4 GHz), and to our knowledge this is the best phase noise and highest tuning band of operation using N-push topology with discrete components so far reported