Systematic design of a voltage controlled oscillator using a layout-aware approach

摘要

This paper focuses on the systematic design of voltage controlled oscillators (VCO), a commonly used radiofrequency (RF) electronic circuit. RF circuits are among the most difficult analog circuits to design due to its trade-offs and high operation frequencies. At such operation frequencies, layout parasitics and accurate passive component characterization become of upmost importance, causing re-design iterations if they are not considered by the designer. To avoid this problem, and reduce the design time, this paper presents a systematic design of a VCO, entailing layout parasitics and accurate characterization of passive components from early design stages. Results clearly illustrate the benefit of this strategy.