Area-Efficient Standing-Wave Oscillator with a Double-8-shaped Inductor

Die area and performance are two important criteria for voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) design. This letter designs a 9.90 GHz LC-tank voltage-standing wave oscillator (SWO) fabricated in 0.18 mu m BiCMOS process. The SWO uses a one-turn double-8-shaped inductor as transmission line for wave propagation and it also uses three pairs of complementary MOS inverters to act as negative resistance generators. The three inverters are placed inside inductor for die area saving. The fabricated SWO occupies an area of 0.947x0.848 mm(2) including the buffers. At the supply voltage of 1.2 V and the power consumption of 3.3 mW, the SWO FOM is -188.59 dBc/Hz. The SWO owns the magnetic field coupling noise suppression nature due to the use of 8-shaped inductor with two lobes for magnetic field coupling suppression.