A 7-to-18.3GHz compact transformer based VCO in 16nm FinFET

Abstract

A dual-mode wide-band transformer based VCO is proposed. The two port impedance of the transformer based resonator is analyzed to derive the optimum primary to secondary capacitor load ratio, for robust mode selectivity and minimum power consumption. Fabricated in a 16nm FinFET technology, the design achieves 2.6× continuous tuning range spanning 7-to-18.3 GHz using a coil area of 120×150 μm2. The absence of lossy switches helps in maintaining phase noise of -112 to -100 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset, across the entire tuning range. The VCO consumes 3-4.4 mW and realizes power frequency tuning normalized figure of merit of 12.8 and 2.4 dB at 7 and 18.3 GHz respectively.