A 24GHz Transformer Coupled CMOS VCO for a Wide Linear Tuning Range

In this paper, a 24 GHz transformer-coupled VCO is presented for a wide linear tuning range in the 0.13-μm CMOS process. The measured results of the proposed VCO show that the center frequency is 23.5 GHz with 7.4% frequency tuning range. The output frequency curve has wide linear tuning region (5.5%) at the middle of the curve. Also, the VCO exhibits good phase noise of −110.23 dBc/Hz at an offset frequency of 1 MHz. It has a compact chip size of 430 × 500 μm2. The VCO core DC power consumption is 5.4 mW at 1.35 V VDD. key words: voltage controlled oscillator (VCO), wide linear tuning, transformer coupling, CMOS