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    An X-Band low-power and low-phase-noise VCO using bondwire inductor
    (München : European Geopyhsical Union, 2009) Hu, K.; Herzel, F.; Scheytt, J.C.
    In this paper a low-power low-phase-noise voltage-controlled-oscillator (VCO) has been designed and, fabricated in 0.25 μm SiGe BiCMOS process. The resonator of the VCO is implemented with on-chip MIM capacitors and a single aluminum bondwire. A tail current filter is realized to suppress flicker noise up-conversion. The measured phase noise is −126.6 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset from a 7.8 GHz carrier. The figure of merit (FOM) of the VCO is −192.5 dBc/Hz and the VCO core consumes 4 mA from a 3.3 V power supply. To the best of our knowledge, this is the best FOM and the lowest phase noise for bondwire VCOs in the X-band. This VCO will be used for satellite communications.
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    Phase noise and jitter modeling for fractional-N PLLs
    (Göttingen : Copernicus, 2007) Osmany, S.A.; Herzel, F.; Schmalz, K.; Winkler, W.
    We present an analytical phase noise model for fractional-N phase-locked loops (PLL) with emphasis on integrated RF synthesizers in the GHz range. The noise of the crystal reference, the voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO), the loop filter, the charge pump, and the sigma-delta modulator (SDM) is filtered by the PLL operation. We express the rms phase error (jitter) in terms of phase noise of the reference, the VCO phase noise and the third-order loop filter parameters. In addition, we consider OFDM systems, where the PLL phase noise is reduced by digital signal processing after down-conversion of the RF signal to baseband. The rms phase error is discussed as a function of the loop parameters. Our model drastically simplifies the noise optimization of the PLL loop dynamics.