CMOS resonant oscillators RTWO based on transmission lines

Rotatory traveling wave oscillator (RTWO) is an innovative transmission-line technique for gigahertz-rate clock signal generation and/or distribution in high-performance microprocessors and systems communication. Currently the resonant RTWO are made in the upper level of metal of a typical CMOS process; however, due the increasing of metal levels in submicron manufacturing technologies, and operation frequencies at GHz range, the parasitic elements of interconnections increase also, causing a degradation in the performance of the RTWO. In this paper a set of 5GHz low-power resonant oscillators RTWO based on transmission lines are presented. Simulation results of the RTWO including discontinuities and without them designed with a UMC 180 nm Mixed-Mode Single-Poly 6-Metal (1P6M) P-Substrate, RFCMOS fabrication process, and the High Frequency Structural Simulator (HFSS) for extraction of parasitics, are shown.