An X-band ultra-low phase noise differential Colpitts voltage-controlled oscillator using 0.15 μm pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistor technology

• Published in: International journal of electronics Vol. 97; no. 5; pp. 605 - 611
• Main Authors: Fu, Jeffrey S., Ke, Po-Yu, Kuo, Che-Yu, Chiu, Hsien-Chin, Wu, Chia-Song
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Taylor & Francis 01-05-2010
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Circuit properties; Colpitts VCO; Electric, optical and optoelectronic circuits; Electronic circuits; Electronics; Exact sciences and technology; Gates; High electron mobility transistors; Linearity; Noise; Oscillators, resonators, synthetizers; phase noise; pHEMT technology; Semiconductor devices; Semiconductor electronics. Microelectronics. Optoelectronics. Solid state devices; Transistors; Voltage controlled oscillators; X-band; Phase noise; Noise figure; Depletion mode; Upconversion; Output power; Gate voltage; Low noise circuit; Colpitts VCO; Voltage controlled oscillator; X band; pHEMT technology; Microwave; Centimetric wave; High electron mobility transistor; Energy characteristic; Bias voltage; Electric power consumption; Pseudomorphic transistor; Heterojunction bipolar transistors; Figure of merit
• ISSN: 0020-7217; 1362-3060
• DOI: 10.1080/00207210903433841

A low phase noise and a high output power X-band differential Colpitts pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistor (pHEMT) voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) is proposed in this study. In general, pHEMT achieves a lower noise up-conversion factor than heterojunction bipolar transistor because of the inherent linear behaviour at optimal gate bias voltage. Therefore, a high linearity 0.15 μm gate length power pHEMT with Colpitts architecture was beneficial for obtaining a low phase noise oscillator together with a high output power characteristic. It achieves an excellent figure of merit of −181.6 dBc/Hz and a power output of 0.67 dBm at 8.6 GHz. In this design, depletion-mode pHEMT was adopted in the VCO core, and a balanced structure was chosen for Colpitts topology to suppress undesired common-mode noise. The VCO was operated from 8.5 GHz to 9.35 GHz with 9.4% tuning range; the measured phase noises at 1 MHz offset were −105.6 dBc/Hz at 9 GHz and −120.46 dBc/Hz at 8.6 GHz, respectively. The current consumption of the VCO core was only 17.6 mA.