Abstract

The design and realisation of a fully integrated Silicon Germanium (SiGe) X-Band Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO) is presented. It performs low phase noise and 10% tuning bandwidth at low voltage bias supply. The VCO, comprising integrated inductors and output transformers, is implemented in a SiGe technology which is suitable for high volume production. The features of this VCO, the adopted methodology and the herein proven potential of the technology make this work a good starting point for the design of next generation totally integrated fast PLL’s. The paper will describe also the architectures chosen and the design techniques adopted.