Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-wxhwt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-14T02:13:26.616Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

6 - Reactive components in oscillators

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2009

Andrea Leonardo Lacaita ,
Salvatore Levantino  and
Carlo Samori
Andrea Leonardo Lacaita
Affiliation:
Politecnico di Milano
Salvatore Levantino
Affiliation:
Politecnico di Milano
Carlo Samori
Affiliation:
Politecnico di Milano
Get access

Summary

Introduction

The key impact of reactive elements on VCO performance has been highlighted extensively in the preceding chapters. Noise, tuning range, signal amplitude and power dissipation are all strongly dependent on the ‘quality’ of inductors and variable capacitors. This chapter is, therefore, devoted to discussing the margin left to the designer for judiciously tailoring these components to squeeze out the best performance.

The optimization of reactive elements is not fully under the control of the circuit designer. Some properties depend directly on the process and often the only option left to the designer is to choose the inductor geometry or the varactor type, within a limited library of components that have previously been characterized and modelled.

On the other hand, a larger degree of freedom would call for a full customization of the reactive components, which is a very risky and delicate process, involving some trial-and-error steps, starting from numerical modelling at the device level, and proceeding with its experimental characterization, the fine tuning of the structure and the development of compact models for circuit simulation.

However, the increase in operating frequency is making the optimization of reactive components a key ability of an RF designer. The following sections give some basic guidelines.

Integrated inductors

On-chip inductors

On-chip inductors are widely used in silicon-based RF integrated circuits as series or shunt elements in resonant VCO tanks, as well as impedance-matching elements in LNAs and choke components. Inductors have traditionally been integrated in GaAs MMICs.

Type
Chapter
Information
Integrated Frequency Synthesizers for Wireless Systems , pp. 133 - 156
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Grover, F. W., Inductance Calculation: Working Formulas and Tables, Princeton, NJ: Van Nostrand, 1946.Google Scholar
Greenhouse, H. M., Design of planar rectangular microelectronics inductors, IEEE T. Parts, Hybrids Packaging, 10, Jun. 1974, 101–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Slater, J. C. and Frank, N. H., Electromagnetism, New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 1947, reprinted New York, NY: Dover, 1969.Google Scholar
Long, J. R. and Copeland, M. A., The modeling, characterization and design of monolithic inductors for silicon RF IC's, IEEE J. Solid-St. Circ., 32, Mar. 1997, 357–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cranickx, J. and Steyaert, M., A 1.8 GHz low-phase-noise CMOS VCO using optimized hollow spiral inductors, IEEE J. Solid-St. Circ., 32, May 1997, 736–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yue, C. P. and Wong, S. S., On-chip spiral inductors with patterned ground shields for Si-based RF IC's, IEEE J. Solid-St. Circ., 33, May 1998, 743–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O, K., Estimation methods or quality factor of inductors fabricated in silicon integrated circuit process technologies, IEEE J. Solid-St. Circ., 33, Aug. 1998, 1249–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Niknejad, A. M. and Meyer, R. G., Analysis, design and optimization of spiral inductors and transformers for Si RF IC's,” IEEE J. Solid-St. Circ., 33, Oct. 1998, 1470–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zolfaghari, A., Chan, A. and Razavi, B., Stacked inductors and transformers in CMOS technology, IEEE J. Solid-St. Circ., 36, Apr. 2001, 620–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yim, S. and , K. O, The effects of ground shield on the characteristics and performance of spiral inductors, IEEE J. Solid-St. Circ., 37, Feb. 2002, 237–44.Google Scholar
Cao, Y.et al., Frequency-independent equivalent-circuit model for on-chip spiral inductors, IEEE J. Solid-St. Circ., 38, Mar. 2003, 419–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Talwakar, N. A., Yue, C. P. and Wong, S. S., Analysis and synthesis of on-chip spiral inductors, IEEE T. Electron Dev., 52, Feb. 2005, 176–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tong, K. Y. and Tsui, C., A physical analytical model of multilayer on-chip inductors, IEEE T. Microw. Theory, 53, Apr. 2005, 1143–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murphy, O.et al., Design of multiple-metal stacked inductors incorporating an extended physical model, IEEE T. Microw. Theory, 53, Jun. 2005, 2063–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guo, J. and Tan, T., A broadband and scalable model for on-chip inductors incorporating substrate and conductor loss effects, IEEE T. Electron Dev., 53, Mar. 2006, 413–21.Google Scholar
Gao, W. and Yu, Z., Scalable compact circuit model and synthesis for RF CMOS spiral inductors, IEEE T. Microw. Theory, 54, Mar. 2006, 1055–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chang, J., Abidi, A. and Gaitan, M., Large suspended inductors on silicon and their use in a 2μm CMOS RF amplifier, IEEE Electr. Device L., 14, May 1993, 246–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
D., M. Pozar, Microwave Engineering, New York, NY: Wiley, 2nd edn, 1997.Google Scholar
Doan, C., Emami, S., Niknejad, A. and Brodersen, R., Millimeter-wave CMOS design, IEEE J. Solid-St. Circ., 40, Jan. 2005, 144–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Natarajan, A., Komijani, A. and Hajimiri, A., A fully integrated 24-GHz phased-array transmitter in CMOS, IEEE J. Solid-St. Circ., 40, Dec. 2005, 2502–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eisenstadt, W. R. and Eo, Y., S-parameter-based IC interconnect transmission line characterization, IEEE T. Compon. Hybr., 15, Aug. 1992, 483–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Muller, R. S. and Kamins, T. I., Device Electronics for Integrated Circuits. New York, NY: J. Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1977, 2nd edn, 1986.Google Scholar
Souyuer, T. and Meyer, R. G., High-frequency phase-locked loops in monolithic bipolar technology, IEEE J. Solid-St. Circ., 24, Jun. 1989, 787–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Svelto, F., Erratico, P., Manzini, S. and Castello, R., A metal-oxide-semiconductor varactor, IEEE Electr. Device L., 20, Apr. 1999, 164–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Porret, A., Melly, T., Enz, C. and Vittoz, E., Design of high-Q varactor for low-power wireless applications using a standard CMOS process, IEEE J. Solid-St. Circ., 35, Mar. 2000, 337–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andreani, P. and Mattisson, S., On the use of MOS varactors in RF VCOs, IEEE J. Solid-St. Circ., 35, Jun. 2000, 905–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maget, J., Tiebout, M. and Kraus, R., MOS with n- and p-type gates and their influence on an LC-VCO in digital CMOS, IEEE J. Solid-St. Circ., 38, Jul. 2003, 1139–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kral, A., Behbahani, F. and Abidi, A. A., RF-CMOS oscillators with switched tuning, Proc. IEEE 1998 Custom Integrated Circuits Conf., May 1998, 555–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×