Realization of a voltage controlled oscillator using 0.35 um sige-bicmos technology for multi-band applications

Official URL: http://192.168.1.20/record=b1226560 (Table of Contents)

The stable growth in wireless communications market has engendered the interoperability of various standards in a single broadband frequency range from hundred MHz up to several GHz. This frequency range consists of various wireless applications such as GSM, Bluetooth and WLAN. Therefore, an agile wireless system needs smart RF front-ends for functioning properly in such a crowded spectrum. As a result, the demand for multi-standard RF transceivers which put various wireless and cordless phone standards together in one structure was increased. The demand for multi-standard RF transceivers gives a key role to reconfigurable wideband VCO operation with low-power and low-phase noise characteristics. Besides agility and intelligence, such a communication system (GSM, WLAN, Global Positioning Systems, etc. ) required meeting the requirements of several standards in a cost-effective way. This, when cost and integration are the major concerns, leads to the exploitation of Si-based technologies. In this thesis, an integrated 2.2-5.7GHz Multi-band differential LC VCO for Multi-standard Wireless Communication systems was designed utilizing 0.35μm SiGe BiCMOS technology. The topology, which combines the switching inductors and capacitors together in the same circuit, is a novel approach for wideband VCOs. Based on the post layout simulation results, the VCO can be tuned using a DC voltage of 0 to 3.3V for 5 different frequency bands (2.27-2.51 GHz, 2.48-2.78GHz, 3.22-3.53GHz, 3.48-3.91GHz and 4.528-5.7GHz) with a maximum bandwidth of 1.36GHz and a minimum bandwidth of 300MHz. The designed and simulated VCO can generate a differential output power between 0.992 dBm and -6.087 dBm with an average power consumption of 44.21mW including the buffers. The average second and third harmonics level were obtained as -37.21 dBm and -47.6 dBm, respectively. The phase noise between -110.45 and -122.5 dBc/Hz, that was simulated at 1 MHz offset, can be obtained through the frequency of interest. Additionally, the figure of merit (FOM), that includes all important parameters such as the phase noise, the power consumption and the ratio of the operating frequency to the offset frequency, is between -176.48 and -181.16 and comparable or better than the ones with the other current VCOs. The main advantage of this study in comparison with the other VCOs, is covering 5 frequency bands starting from 2.27 up to 5.76 GHz without FOM and area abandonment.