Low phase noise pulse rotary wave voltage controlled oscillator

This paper presents a low phase noise, wide tuning range voltage controlled oscillator. The oscillator uses a rotary wave oscillator topology, with pulse regenerative gates used as amplifiers. Pulse gates confer a paticular low-duty cycle pulse waveform whose arrival time is very weakly dependent on amplitude or pulse width. This reduces the root mean square value of Impulse Sensitivity Function, thereby reducing the phase noise. Further, the oscillator rejects common mode supply noise by double inversion of signals in every stage. Timing signals are ground referenced so the supply can be used as a control voltage. The fabricated 2.96 GHz oscillator in GFUS8RF(130nm) has phase noise of −132.2dBc/Hz @ 10MHz offset. The oscillator has a tuning range of 2.64GHz to 2.96GHz with average phase noise of −130.71dBc/Hz @ 10MHz offset.