A Low-Phase-Noise Quad-Core Millimeter-Wave Fundamental VCO Using Circular Tripl

Abstract

The minimal achievable phase noise (PN) of millimeter-wave (mm-wave ) voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs) is bounded by the smallest realizable inductor with a reasonable high quality factor ( Q). A multi-core VCO reduces the total equivalent inductance of the tank by synchronizing multiple VCO cores, therefore improving the PN performance. This article presents a 60-GHz fundamental VCO based on a mode-rejection circular triple-coupled-transformer tank, which improves the PN performance of the