Low cost 2.4-GHz VCO design in 0.18-㎛ Mixed-signal CMOS Process for WSN applications

• Published in: 한국정보통신학회논문지 Vol. 24; no. 2; pp. 325 - 328
• Main Authors: Heesauk Jhon(전희석), Chang-Ho An(안창호), Youngho Jung(정영호)
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 한국정보통신학회 01.02.2020
• Subjects: 전자/정보통신공학; Mixed-signal CMOS process; VSI; voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO); low cost; phase noise
• ISSN: 2234-4772; 2288-4165
• DOI: 10.6109/jkiice.2020.24.2.325

This paper demonstrated a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) using cost-effective (1-poly 6-metal) mixed signal standard CMOS process. To have the high-quality factor inductor in LC resonator with thin metal thickness, patterned-ground shields (PGS) was adopted under the spiral to effectively reduce the ac current of low resistive Si substrate. And, because of thin top-metal compared with that of RF option (2 μm), we make electrically connect between the top metal (M6) and the next metal (M5) by great number of via array along the metal traces. The circuit operated from 2.48 GHz to 2.62 GHz tuned by accumulation-mode varactor device. And the measured phase noise of LC VCO has –123.7 dBc/Hz at 1MHz offset at 2.62 GHz and the dc-power consumption shows 2.07 mW with 1.8V supply voltage, respectively. KCI Citation Count: 0