A K-band low phase noise and low power CMOS voltage-controlled oscillator

A K-band differential cross-coupled inductance- capacitance (LC) voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) is implemented in 0.18-μm CMOS process. To accomplish high quality (Q) factor LC-tank at K-band, a slab inductor with high Q is adopted. The VCO can be tuned from 23.1 to 23.38 GHz and the core dc power consumption is 11.33 mW from 1 V power supply. The phase noise is −109.04 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset, and the calculated figure of merit (FoM) is −185.79 dBc/Hz. At low supply voltage mode of 0.65 V, the phase noise is −106.015 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset and the FoM is −189.76 dBc/Hz.