Cost-effective 4 GHz VCO using only miniature spirals realized in a 0.18 µm CMOS process for wireless sensor network (WSN) applications

Heesauk Jhon, Min Su Kim, Myounggon Kang

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

This paper presents an extremely cost-effective radio-frequency integrated circuit (RFIC) implementation technique by employing a digital logic CMOS process and reducing area occupation for voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs) using all miniature inductors for wireless sensor network (WSN) applications. The designed VCO operates in the 4.0 GHz band with a power consumption of 1.4 mW and a phase noise of −113.6 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz, occupying a Si area of 0.283 × 0.682 mm2 . In addition, we confirmed that the figure of merit (FOM) of 183.8 in our design is competitive with that of other LC-VCOs that were fabricated using the RF option and designed with conventional inductors.

Original languageEnglish
Article number1369
JournalElectronics (Switzerland)
Volume8
Issue number11
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 2019

Keywords

  • Helical inductor
  • Mixed/analog CMOS process
  • Phase noise
  • Symmetric
  • VCO
  • Voltage-controlled oscillator

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