Novel digitally programmable multiphase voltage controlled oscillator and its stability discussion

doi:10.1016/j.microrel.2013.12.008

Microelectronics Reliability

Volume 54, Issue 3, March 2014, Pages 595-600

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.microrel.2013.12.008 Get rights and content

Highlights

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The MVCO could provide six or eight different phase sinusoidal signals.
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The frequency tuning range of the six-phase MVCO is from 788.5 MHz to 2.506 GHz.
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The frequency tuning range of the eight-phase MVCO is from 558.9 MHz to 1.512 GHz.

Abstract

In this paper, a novel programmable current-mode multiphase voltage controlled oscillator (MVCO) is presented. The proposed MVCO consists of four identical first-order all-pass filters, which act for delay cells of the MVCO. By switching the programmable MOS switches on and off, the MVCO can provide six or eight different phase sinusoidal signals. Theoretically, the proposed MVCO can provide 2n (n ⩾ 3) different phase sinusoidal signals by cascading n (n ⩾ 3) first-order all-pass delay cells. Compared with previous reported works, this MVCO has the advantages of lower supply voltage, lower power consumption, a smaller chip area and more multi-outputs than other reported works. In particularly, by using programmable switches and cascading more first-order all-pass delay cells, the proposed MVCO can theoretically provide 2n (n ⩾ 3) different phase sinusoidal signals.

Introduction

Radio Frequency (RF) oscillators have a wide range of applications in signal processing, measurement systems, and many other RF communication systems. Consequently, a large number of RF voltage controlled oscillators (VCO) have been proposed. The reported RF VCOs can be divided into two categories: negative resistance oscillators with LC tank [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], and ring oscillators. Owing to the large quality factor Q of the LC tank, the negative resistance LC oscillators have the advantage of low noise figure and good frequency performance. However, a large chip area is inevitable in this kind of VCO, because the on-chip spiral inductance requires a very large chip area. The other kind of VCO is the ring oscillator [6], [7], [8], [9], [10], [11], [12]. Generally, the ring oscillators consist only of MOS transistors, capacitors and resistors. The large on-chip spiral inductor is not necessary in this kind of oscillator, which can save a lot of chip area. However, all of the reported VCOs can only provide two or four different phase sinusoidal signals, and the number of output signals cannot be changed, which restricts their practical application.

Combining the analog integrated circuit design with the using current-mode approach has become popular because it provides larger dynamic range, wider bandwidth, lower power consumption over the voltage-mode counterparts [13]. By combining the advantages of current-mode circuits and the reduced chip area of the ring oscillators, a novel programmable current-mode multiphase voltage controlled oscillator (using four first-order all-pass filters as delay cells) is proposed in this paper. This MVCO can provide six or eight different phase sinusoidal signals by controlling the programmable switches. Theoretically, the proposed MVCO could even provide 2n (n ⩾ 3) different phase sinusoidal signals by cascading n (n ⩾ 3) first-order all-pass delay cells. The cadence IC Design Tools 5.1.41 Spectre post-layout simulation results show that when the switch S₁ is turned on, and the switch S₂ is turned off, the MVCO can provide six different phase sinusoidal signals, and the output frequency tuning range of the six-phase MVCO is from 788.5 MHz to 2.506 GHz; when the switch S₂ is turned on, and the switch S₁ is turned off, the MVCO can provide eight different phase sinusoidal signals, and the output frequency tuning range of the eight-phase MVCO is from 558.9 MHz to 1.512 GHz.

Section snippets

The proposed MVCO and its stability discussion

The structure of the proposed MVCO is shown in Fig. 1. It is formed by: (i) Four identical first order all-pass filter (APF) delay cells; (ii) two programmable MOS switches. When switch S₁ is turned on, and switch S₂ is turned off, the MVCO can provide six sinusoidal signals. When switch S₂ is turned on, and switch S₁ is turned off, the MVCO can provide eight different phase sinusoidal signals. More identical delay cells can also be cascaded with this MVCO, and it can provide further different

Post-layout simulation results

The proposed MVCO is realized using Cadence IC Design Tools 5.1.41 Spectre simulator with standard Charted 0.18 μm RF CMOS technology. The chip layout strictly adheres to the Chartered Design Rule (YI-093-DR001_Rev1V_1.8 V−3.3 V) and Chartered Spice Model spec(yi093dr001_1v_00_20090731a). In the post-layout simulation, the supply voltage is V_cc = 1 V, and the capacitors C = 60 fF.

Fig. 5, Fig. 6, Fig. 7, Fig. 8 are the post-layout simulation results of the MVCO with the switch S₁ turned on, and the

Conclusions

A novel programmable current-mode multiphase voltage controlled oscillator (MVCO) is presented in this paper. This MVCO can provide six or eight different phase sinusoidal signals by controlling the programmable switches. Theoretically, the proposed MVCO could even provide 2n (n ⩾ 3) different phase sinusoidal signals by cascading n (n ⩾ 3) first-order all-pass delay cells. The cadence IC Design Tools 5.1.41 Spectre post-layout simulation results show that when S₁ is turned on, and S₂ is turned

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the editors and anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments which helped in improving this manuscript. The authors would also like to thank Mr. Tomas James Czaban and Mrs. Shanshan Xu in collage of foreign language of Jishou University for the English improvements of this paper. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 61274020) and the Research Innovation Project for Graduate in Hunan Province (CX2013B141).

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View full text

Novel digitally programmable multiphase voltage controlled oscillator and its stability discussion

Highlights

Abstract

Introduction

Section snippets

The proposed MVCO and its stability discussion

Post-layout simulation results

Conclusions

Acknowledgements

Microelectron Reliab

Microelectron Reliab

Microelectron Reliab

Microelectron Reliab

2.4 GHz Quadrature differential LC oscillator using two coupling capacitors

Frequenz

Multiloop high-power-supply-rejection quadrature ring oscillator

IEEE J Solid-State Circ