Low phase noise wideband VCO using MEMS

Here I have attempted to design a low phase noise fully integrated VCO in 0.5μm BiCMOS process with 10-20% tuning range. The VCO uses MOS capacitors for tuning and on-chip inductor as LC tank circuit. On-chip BiCMOS band gap bias network is implemented using MOSFETs operating in subthreshold region along with fast BJTs. It is giving precise response over desired range. Now primary aim is to maximize Q of the LC tank circuit to reduce phase noise. Now my attention is on incorporating on chip MEMS components for improving gain, power dissipation, phase noise, tuning performance of the VCO. For that two approaches are being in progress. First is to replace MOS capacitors by MEM tunable capacitors (using MEMS pro) technique of using reconfigurable comb drive mechanism is being incorporated. Its good for obtaining wide tuning but considering need for compact from factor presently MOS capacitor results dominates. Second is to design on-chip MEMS inductor. Also as designed inductor shows high loss translating into poor noise characteristic or low Q factors and becoming a major design bottleneck, moving toward MEMS inductor. I hope to optimize the tuning the tuning performance by tunable inductor.