Design of High Frequency Oscillators for Ultra-Wideband Systems

This paper describes two designs of high-frequency oscillators for Ultra-Wideband (UWB) sensor systems. The first is a cross-coupled voltage-control oscillator (VCO) realized as an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) implemented in the $0.25 \mu \mathrm{m}$ SiGe BiCMOS technology from IHP, Germany with resonant frequency 11 GHz and 25 GHz. The second design is the Dielectric Resonator Oscillator (DRO) that uses a dielectric resonator (also known as a “puck”) to set the oscillating frequency. A DRO is based on the discrete structure with a resonant frequency of 20.17 GHz. The most important specifications for the VCO are provided and architecture for an existing frequency plan is introduced along with a discussion on its performance and implementation. The simulated VCO can achieve a wide tuning range of 11.21 GHz to 11.71 GHz as well as of 24.86 GHz up to 25.43 GHz. The overall power consumption of the cross-coupled VCO and DRO is 40 mA at a supply voltage of 2.5 V and 9 mA at a supply voltage of 3.3 V, respectively.