A 0.3 V −190.2 dBc/Hz FoM 14-GHz Band LC-VCO IC with Harmonic Tuned LC Tank in 56-nm SOI CMOS

This paper presents a 14-GHz band ultra-low-power low-phase-noise VCO IC with a novel harmonic tuned LC tank consisting of a conventional LC tank and additional series inductors. The additional inductor is connected between the drain of the cross-coupled pMOSFET and the conventional LC tank circuit to adjust the harmonic impedance and to shape the drain voltage waveform rectangular. The adjusted load impedance improves the phase noise of the VCO IC. The conventional and proposed VCOs are designed, fabricated and fully measured on-wafer in 56-nm SOI CMOS technology. The fabricated VCO IC has exhibited a measured phase-noise of − 125.7 dBc/Hz at 10 MHz offset from the 13.46 GHz carrier frequency at a supply voltage of only 0.3 V. The power consumption of the VCO IC core is 0.63 mW and the FoM is − 190.2 dBc/Hz.