Ultra-low-power wideband NMOS LC-VCO design for autonomous connected objects

Imen Ghorbel , Fayrouz Haddad (1) , Wenceslas Rahajandraibe (1) , Mourad Loulou

1 IM2NP - Institut des Matériaux, de Microélectronique et des Nanosciences de Provence

In this paper, a fully integrated subthreshold LC voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) is presented. A design methodology is also proposed to find the optimal parameters lowering the power consumption. This methodology has been applied to design oscillators for different frequency bands. Furthermore, an adaptive body biasing technique has been used to improve the startup constrains and allows a high immunity to PVT (process, voltage and temperature) variations. A VCO operating in 5 GHz ISM (Industrial, Scientific and Medical) band has been realized with the proposed methodology in 0.13μm CMOS. It consumes only 468 μW from 0.39V supply voltage. This makes it possible to meet the required specifications of autonomous connected objects and IoT applications. The measured oscillation frequency can be tuned from 5.14 GHz to 5.44 GHz. The obtained phase noise is approximately equal to-112 dBc/Hz in post-layout simulation (PLS) and-104.5 dBc/Hz in measure.

Mots clés: LC-VCO; RF; design methodology; subthreshold; PVT; adaptive body biasing; low power; IoT

Domaines: Micro et nanotechnologies/Microélectronique

Imen Ghorbel, Fayrouz Haddad, Wenceslas Rahajandraibe, Mourad Loulou. Ultra-low-power wideband NMOS LC-VCO design for autonomous connected objects. Analog Integrated Circuits and Signal Processing, 2021, 106 (2), pp.375-383. ⟨10.1007/s10470-020-01613-0⟩. ⟨hal-03601885⟩