A 28GHz Low-Phase-Noise CMOS VCO Using an Amplitude-Redistribution Technique

Increasing demands for multi-Gb/s data transmission make the mm-wave wireless communication systems more attractive. The VCO is an essential block in these systems. This paper describes an amplitude-redistribution technique which improves phase noise performance of mm-wave cross-coupled VCOs by controlling the distribution of voltage swings on the oscillator nodes. A 28GHz VCO, fabricated in a 0.13mum CMOS process, uses this technique and demonstrates low phase-noise performance of -112.9dBc/Hz at 1MHz offset.