A 15-GHz CMOS Multiphase Rotary Traveling-Wave Voltage-Controlled Oscillator

This paper presents a 15-GHz multiphase rotary traveling-wave voltage-controlled oscillator (RTW VCO) where a shielded coplanar stripline (CPS) is exploited to provide better shielding protection and lower phase noise at a moderate cost of characteristic impedance and power consumption. Test chips were implemented in a standard 90-nm CMOS process, demonstrating the measured results of 2-GHz frequency tuning range, -11.3-dBm output power, -109.6-dBc/Hz phase noise at 1-MHz offset, and 2-ps RMS clock jitter at 15 GHz. The chip core occupies the area of 0.2 mm(2) and dissipates 12 mW from a single 1.2-V supply.