Two 60-GHz 15-dBm Output Power VCOs in 22-nm FDSOI

This letter presents the design and characterization of two 60-GHz voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs) fabricated in a 22-nm fully depleted silicon on insulator (FDSOI) CMOS technology with over 15-dBm output power. Both VCOs rely on the same cross-coupled nMOS gain cells and pseudodifferential cascode buffers. The VCOs consume around 150 mW from the dc supply. The frequency tuning of the first one is achieved through the high-quality factor variable inductors (VIDs) and has a phase noise as low as −99 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset, while the second one employs additional varactors to expand the fractional frequency tuning range to 17%. Both VCOs have achieved over 20% dc-to-RF efficiency.