CMOS implementation of a 1.6 GHz low voltage low phase noise quadrature output frequency synthesizer with automatic amplitude control

Authors:
Owen Casha;Ivan Grech;Joseph Micallef;Edward Gatt
Affiliations:
Department of Micro and Nanoelectronics, Faculty of Information and Communication Technology, University of Malta, Msida, Malta MSD 2080;Department of Micro and Nanoelectronics, Faculty of Information and Communication Technology, University of Malta, Msida, Malta MSD 2080;Department of Micro and Nanoelectronics, Faculty of Information and Communication Technology, University of Malta, Msida, Malta MSD 2080;Department of Micro and Nanoelectronics, Faculty of Information and Communication Technology, University of Malta, Msida, Malta MSD 2080
Venue:
Analog Integrated Circuits and Signal Processing
Year:
2008

Citing 3
Cited 1

Principles of CMOS VLSI design: a systems perspective

Principles of CMOS VLSI design: a systems perspective
New approach to CMOS current reference with very low temperature coefficient

Proceedings of the 13th ACM Great Lakes symposium on VLSI
Comparative study of gigahertz CMOS LC quadrature voltage-controlled oscillators with relevance to phase noise

Analog Integrated Circuits and Signal Processing

Spurious signals due to amplitude quantization in direct digital frequency synthesizers

Microelectronics Journal

Quantified Score

Hi-index	0.00

Visualization

Abstract

This article presents the design of a 1.2 V CMOS low phase noise quadrature output frequency synthesizer (FS) to be used for a GPS tuner application. Special reference is made to the design of a wide tuning range quadrature output voltage-controlled oscillator which is equipped with an automatic amplitude controller. It exhibits a phase noise response of less than 驴115 dBc/Hz at an offset of 1 MHz from the carrier and has a tuning range of over 36%. The effect of the automatic amplitude control is shown to improve phase noise at high oscillation frequencies and its noise has a negligible effect on the phase noise response even at low offset frequencies from the carrier. Preliminary analysis is presented showing the negligible effect of a DC---DC converter on the spurious level of the FS, included to permit the use of low sensitivity varactors. Design guidelines for reducing both the loop noise and the AM-to-PM conversion factors of the oscillator are also given. The design was made using the STMicroelectronics 0.13 μm HCMOS9-RF technology design kit.