Ku band LC-active 90nm CMOS VCO

A novel 13-GHz LC-active VCO has been implemented in 90nm CMOS technology by ST-Microelectronics. The VCO consists of two complementary cross-coupled pairs, an active LC tank implemented by means of a differential high-Q low-noise active inductor and two p-MOSFET varicaps, and an output buffer stage. The VCO provides a sinusoidal signal with amplitude of -11.3 dBm at 12.72 GHz. The measured phase noise amounts to -105.25 dBc/Hz at 1-MHz frequency offset. The VCO core and the active inductor have a current consumption of 700 μA and 1.8 mA, respectively, from a 1.2-V power supply.