A 0.4-6-GHz Frequency Synthesizer Using Dual-Mode VCO for Software-Defined Radio

• Published in: IEEE transactions on microwave theory and techniques 2013-02, Vol.61 (2), p.848-859
• Main Authors: Zhou, Jin, Li, Wei, Huang, Deping, Lian, Chen, Li, Ning, Ren, Junyan, Chen, Jinghong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Amplitude modulation; Applied sciences; Broadcasting. Videocommunications. Audiovisual; Capacitors; Circuit properties; Design. Technologies. Operation analysis. Testing; Electric, optical and optoelectronic circuits; Electronic circuits; Electronics; Exact sciences and technology; Frequency synthesizer; Frequency synthesizers; Integrated circuits; Mixers; Noise measurement; Oscillators, resonators, synthetizers; phase noise; Radio; Radiocommunication specific techniques; Radiocommunications; Semiconductor electronics. Microelectronics. Optoelectronics. Solid state devices; Signal generation; single-sideband (SSB) mixer; software-defined radio (SDR); Synthesizers; Telecommunications; Telecommunications and information theory; Television; Voltage controlled oscillators; voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO); wireless communication
• ISSN: 0018-9480; 1557-9670
• DOI: 10.1109/TMTT.2012.2233493

This paper presents a dual-mode voltage-controlled oscillator (DMVCO) and a DMVCO-based wideband frequency synthesizer for software-defined radio applications. The DMVCO allows the synthesizer to leverage single-sideband (SSB) mixing, a power efficient approach, for high-frequency local oscillator (LO) signal generation, without the need of poly-phase filter or quadrature voltage-controlled oscillator (QVCO). When compared to the QVCO approach, the DMVCO solution allows the synthesizer to provide continuous LO signals without frequency gaps. The synthesizer is implemented in a 0.13-μm CMOS technology, occupying an active area of 2.2 mm 2 and consuming 34-77 mW of power. It provides in-phase and quadrature-phase LO signals over the frequency bands of 0.4-3- and 5-6 GHz and differential LO signals from 0.4 to 6 GHz, supporting major wireless standards including DVB-T, GSM, WCDMA, TD-SCDMA, WLAN802.11 a/b/g, and Bluetooth. The measured phase noises are -135 and -124 dBc/Hz at 3-MHz offset under 1.8- and 5.15-GHz carriers, respectively. The measured spurious tones are less than - 42 dBc at the SSB mixer output.