Physics-based analysis and simulation of phase noise in oscillators

A technology computer-aided design framework that can predict the phase noise spectrum of an oscillator using nonlinear perturbation analysis is developed. The device-circuit mixed-mode simulation technique based upon the 'shootingNewton method is exploited to evaluate the periodic steady-state solution of the oscillator. The influence of noise sources inside the devices on the phase deviation is calculated in an efficient and accurate way using the perturbation projection vector. The period jitter and the output power spectrum can be easily obtained in this framework. As an application, the output power spectrum of a CMOS LC voltage-controlled oscillator is calculated.