A VCO with on chip tank for IEEE 802.11a

In the last years, wireless LAN market has shown an incredible growth, exceeding expectations. This article presents a fully integrated LC voltage controlled oscillator in a low cost 0.35 μm BiCMOS process for the 5–6 GHz band, according to the IEEE 802.11a wireless LAN standard. The tank inductor has been designed by electromagnetic simulations. To test the VCO performance, a synthesizer for IEEE 802.11a has been designed. This work demonstrates the feasibility of a low cost silicon technology for the design of 5–6 GHz band circuits. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 50: 2632–2635, 2008; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.23757