A 312GHz fourth-harmonic voltage-controlled oscillator in 130nm SiGe BiCMOS technology

Abstract

Terahertz (>300GHz) voltage-controlled oscillators (VCO) are envisioned for applications in remote sensing, advanced imaging and telecommunication. In this paper, simulation results of a fourth-harmonic VCO are presented. The VCO has a tuning range from 312.11 to 312.67 GHz (0.18%), consumes 58.07mW of power and generates -62.4dBm (575.4pW) of output power into a 50 Ohm load. The phase noise is ~ -86.2 dBc/Hz with 10MHz offset frequency. The microchip area is 450µm×340µm. A 130nm SiGe BiCMOS technology is utilized for the high f T (>200GHz) and f max (>280GHz) of the NPN transistors. This VCO provides the highest output frequency with lumped oscillation topology in SiGe process reported till now.