A Coupled-Inductor Dual-Mode Switched Voltage-Controlled Oscillator Using Gan-On-Si Hemt Technology

A coupled-inductors dual-mode switch cross-coupled pair voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) was presented, adopting GaN-on-Si high-electron-mobility transistor technology. The coupled inductors create two resonant frequencies that cover a wide frequency range. The two continuous bands were achieved by using coupled inductors, and the fine-tuning is controlled by varactors. The low and high bands of the VCO were 2.77-3.11GHz and 3-3.28GHz, in the V-c range between 10 and 17V, respectively, which corresponds to a 16.7% (510MHz) tuning range. The lowest phase noise was -123dBc/Hz at an offset frequency of 1MHz, and the highest output power was 17.7dBm using a 7.5-V power supply.