Low-power VCO for K-band Applications

This paper presents a low-power Voltage Controlled Oscillator based on an NMOS Cross-Coupled pair and PMOS Colpitts structure for K-hand applications. The advantages of this work consist of low phase noise and robust start-up condition, leading to minimized dc power. The proposed circuit is simulated in 0.18 mu m CMOS process. The designed VCO covers the frequency range of 23.9 GHz to 24.6 GHz with a tuning range of 2.9% Simulation results show that the phase noise of designed VCO is -104.9 dBc/Hz at 1MHz offset frequency for 24.1GHz carrier frequency, and its power consumption is 2.4 mW under 1 V supply voltage, and the figure-of-merit is -188.73 dBc/Hz.