The low phase noise, low supply voltage 1.3 GHz CMOS VCO has been realized by 0.25 µm standard CMOS technology without any trimming and any tuning. The phase noise characteristics of -109 dBc/Hz and -123 dBc/Hz at 100 kHz offset and 500 kHz offset were achieved from carrier, respectively, with 1.3 GHz oscillation frequency at 1.4 V supply voltage. The performance of 1.4 V supply voltage phase noise was superior to that of 2.0 V supply voltage phase noise due to low output impedance current source. The tuning ranges of 13.3%, 16.6%, and 20.1% for 1.4 V, 1.8 V, and 2.0 V supply voltage were achieved, respectively. The amplifier consisted of one pair of PMOS differential stage with large gate length NMOS current source to realize low supply voltage operation and to avoid flicker noise contribution for phase noise. The on-chip spiral inductor consisted of three terminals arranged in a special shape to obtain high Q and small chip area. The power dissipation of this VCO was 22.4 mW without buffer amplifier.

Fully integrated VCO using the "turbo-charger" technique to improve phase noise characteristics is presented. The phase noise degradation of relatively lower oscillation frequency in tuning range was caused by oscillation amplitude lowering due to large total capacitance. On the other hand, the phase noise degradation of relatively higher frequency in tuning range was caused by excess current noise. A new "turbo-charger" circuit increased operation current to obtain sufficient transconductance of amplifier when oscillation frequency was lower to improve phase noise characteristics. The phase noise of VCO employing this technique was extremely low and stable, below -140-dBc/Hz at 3-MHz offset from oscillation frequency, in wide oscillation frequency range, approximately 200-MHz for 1200-MHz oscillation. This VCO was operated with 5.8-7.4-mA current consumption at 3-V supply voltage. The manufacturing process was 0.6-µm SiGe BiCMOS.

A 6 GHz integrated VCO using SiGe BiCMOS process has been studied. The integrated inductors were realized by third metal with 3 µm thickness aluminum and its Q=20 at 6 GHz. The amplifier consisted of bipolar transistor. Tuning range was 38% with 0 V to 3 V tuning voltage. Phase noise of -100 dBc/Hz was obtained at 1 MHz offset from carrier frequency. The current consumption of VCO was 4.9 mA at 3 V power supply.