A 2.4 GHz high-linearity low-phase-noise CMOS LC-VCO based on capacitance compensation

A 2.4 GHz high-linearity low-phase-noise cross-coupled CMOS LC voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) is implemented in standard 0.18-μm CMOS technology. An equalization structure for tuning sensitivity base on the three-stage distributed biased switched-varactor bank and the differential switched-capacitor bank is adopted to reduce the variations of the VCO gain, achieve high linearity, and optimize the phase-noise performance. Compared to the conventional VCO, the proposed VCO has more constant gain over the entire tuning range. The tuning range is about 18.7% from 2.23 to 2.69 GHz, and the phase noise is −95 dBc/Hz at 100-kHz offset and −117 dBc/Hz at 1-MHz offset from the carrier frequency of 2.42 GHz. The power dissipation is 2.1 mW from a 1.8 V power supply. The active area of this VCO is 500 × 810 μm2.