A 146-173GHz Wideband Push-Push VCO in 40nm CMOS

Abstract

In this paper, a THz wideband push-push voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) in 40nm CMOS process is designed. To achieve the wide tuning range, the proposed wideband VCO is realized by switched capacitor array. By applying passive capacitor connected between the transistors in cross coupled pair, the output power of the oscillator is improved. The simulated results show that the VCO has the tuning range of 16.8% from 146GHz to 173GHz with a supply voltage of 0.9V. The output power of the proposed VCO is 3.01dBm at 160GHz and the phase noise is −89dBc/Hz at 1MHz offset. Small chip size of the VCO including testing pads is 380×380 μm2.