A VCO for multi-standard transceiver should operate in wide-tuning range, while providing low-phase noise quadrature outputs with low power consumption. In this paper, a multi-standard CMOS LC QVCO is designed utilizing reconfigurable LC tank and low power low phase noise quadrature generation method. Designed in 0.18 µm CMOS technology, the VCO achieved very wide tuning characteristics in two separate bands with low power consumption.

A simple low power low phase noise LC QVCO (Quadrature Voltage Controlled Oscillator) topology is proposed. The topology minimizes phase noise by eliminating the contributions from the tail current source and coupling transistors. With no more than 3.36 mW power consumption from a 1.2 V power supply, the VCO achieves -124 dBc/Hz phase noise performance at 1 MHz offset from the 2.85 GHz carrier frequency.