A Ku-Band Low-Phase-Noise Cross-Coupled VCO in GaAs HBT Technology

In this paper, a fully integrated Ku-band voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) with low phase noise is presented in a GaAs heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) technology. A cross-coupled configuration is employed to achieve low phase noise, and to achieve high output power, the largest HBT and higher bias current are adopted. The implemented VCO demonstrates that the oscillation frequency is from 13.77GHz to 14.8GHz, with a maximum 4.83dBm output power at 13.77GHz. The phase noise of the VCO is −100.2dBc/Hz at 1MHz offset from 14.36GHz oscillation frequency. The VCO consumes 61.2mW from 6V supply and occupies an area of 0.51mm×0.62mm. Finally, the figure-of-merits (FOMs) for VCOs are discussed.