A 2.22–2.92GHz LC-VCO demonstrated with an integrated magnetic-enhanced inductor in 180nm SOI CMOS

We demonstrate a 2.22–2.92GHz LC voltage-controlled oscillator (LC-VCO) in an 180nm SOI CMOS integrated with a novel compact inductor with vertical magnetic core. The new magnetic-enhanced inductor was fabricated using a new CMOS-compatible process. Measurements show that the single-layer magnetic-cored inductor increases its inductor density by 16.9% within the operation frequency range, leading to a phase noise reduction for the VCO from −106.97dBc/Hz to −113.49dBc/Hz at 10MHz offset frequency. This VCO prototype demonstrates the potential of designing RF system-on-a-chip (SoC) using new vertical magnetic-cored inductors.