A 60 GHz VCO with 654 MHz direct Frequency Modulation Bandwidth in 0.13-µm SiGe BiCMOS

Abstract

A low power 60 GHz voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) with high frequency modulation bandwidth fabricated in a 0.13-µm SiGe BiCMOS technology is presented. The VCO is designed for two different contexts, one for low-power mobile applications and the other for validating the phase-accurate synchronization of multiple spatially distributed coupled oscillators without a classical hierarchical master-slave clock distribution topology. To ensure quick decay of perturbations in such topologies, the individual oscillators have to respond fast to changes at the input. This is characterized by the direct frequency modulation bandwidth, which measures 654 MHz for the presented VCO. Additionally, a minimum power consumption of 11.3 mW is achieved at a tuning range of 3.78 GHz and a phase noise of -89.01 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz frequency offset.