An LC-VCO strongly suppresses the AM-FM conversion caused by varactor

Abstract

A differential LC-VCO that adopts a transformer with asymmetric turns-ratio has been proposed. The asymmetric turns-ratio of the transformer leads to the suppression of the AM to FM conversion which is caused by the 1/f noise of the current source transistor. The analysis of the proposed scheme and the improvement in phase noise compare to conventional CMOS LC-VCOs are described. The transformer used in proposed VCO occupies about 430x430 mu m(2) of silicon area while the inductor in compared conventional VCO does 390 x 390 mu m(2).