This paper reports the latest advances on millimeter-wave CMOS voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs). Current state-of-the-art implementations are reviewed, and their performances are compared in terms of phase noise and figure of merit. Low power and low phase noise LC-VCO and ring oscillator designs are analyzed and discussed. Design and performance trends over the last decade are provided and discussed. The paper shows how for the higher range of millimeter-waves (>60 GHz) the performances of ring oscillators become comparable with those of LC-VCOs.

̶ This paper reports comparative analyses of the phase noise predictions through Cadence simulations for two LC oscillator topologies: Colpitts and Hartley oscillators. The oscillators have been designed and phase noise performance have been derived by means of both direct Cadence-SpectreRF simulations and the Impulse Sensitivity Function (ISF). All the simulation steps for deriving the ISF have been discussed in detail. The ISF has been evaluated for a wide range of amplitudes of the injected current pulse and compared with simulation results obtained directly by Cadence-SpectreRF simulations. The comparative analyses carried out for a set of different injected pulse amplitudes show that the ISF provides accurate predictions across the entire amplitude range and that the phase noise performance of Colpitts are superior to Hartley oscillator.

No abstract

No abstract