High-performance differential VCO based on armstrong oscillator topology

摘要

A symmetric topology based on the classical Armstrong's oscillator was developed and implemented as a fully monolithic voltage-controlled oscillator using ST Microelectronics' 0.35-μm BiCMOS process (f{sub}T = 35 GHz). It oscillates at a center frequency of 4.4 GHz, has a tuning range of 1.0 GHz, delivers a single-ended output power of -6.5 dBm, and the minimum current consumption is less than 4 mA from a 2.5-V power supply. The phase noise is - 125 dBc/Hz, measured at 3-MHz offset.