Ultra-Low Power Quadrature LO-Generator

  • Yu Hwan Shin Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
  • Young Hyun Lim Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
  • Sun Eui Park Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
  • Ju Yeop Kim Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
  • Joo Eun Bang Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
  • Jae Hyouk Choi Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
DOI: https://doi.org/10.23075/jicas.2022.8.1.006
Keywords: LC-VCO, LO-generator, Loop-gain stabilizer, Low-Dropout(LDO) regulator, Parallel amplifier

Abstract

This work presents an ultra-low power quadrature local oscillation (LO) generator for mobile transceivers using a low-dropout (LDO) regulator and low noise voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO). Using a loop-gain stabilizer in LDO, the gain of the error amplifier can be constant in a wide range of load current or reference voltage. The LDO achieves high PSR and fast transient-response. Since the proposed LDO is based on the gate-pole dominant, it can be integrated on-chip. For low phase noise, NMOS-type LC-VCO is used. To reduce phase noise, a tail inductor was added. The LDO using a loop-gain stabilizer shows a fast response of 138 ns and a high PSR of −70 dB at 10 kHz to 1 MHz offset frequency, regulating output at 1.0 V with a 1.1 V supply voltage. The VCO shows a frequency range of 7.675 GHz to 12.301 GHz with a power consumption of 10 mW to 12 mW at a regulated supply of 1.0 V.

Author Biographies

Yu Hwan Shin, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology

Yu Hwan Shin was born in Geoje, South Korea, in 1999. He received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, South Korea, in 2021. He is currently pursuing the M.S. degree with the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, South Korea. His research interests include CMOS analog/mixed integrated circuit (IC) designs, especially high-speed
clock/frequency generation systems.

Young Hyun Lim, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology

Young Hyun Lim (Member, IEEE) was born in Gyeongju, South Korea, in 1992. He received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering from the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), Ulsan, South Korea, in 2015, where he is currently pursuing the combined M.S./Ph.D. degree.
He was an Intern with Qualcomm, Inc., San Diego, CA, USA, where he was involved in designing the phase-locked loops (PLLs) in the upcoming TRXs. His research interests include low-power and high-performance analog, mixed-signal, and RF integrated circuits for emerging wireless/wired standards. Mr. Lim was a recipient of the IEEE Student Research Preview (SRP) Award for the outstanding poster at ISSCC in 2019, the Korean Government Scholarship (GPF), and the Honorable Mention and the Bronze Prize at the 24th and 25th Samsung Human-Tech Paper Awards in 2018 and 2019, respectively.

Sun Eui Park, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology

Sun Eui Park (Student Member, IEEE) was born in Seoul, South Korea, in 1994. She received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), Ulsan, Korea, in 2017 and 2020, respectively. She is currently pursuing the Ph.D. degree with the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, Korea. Her research interests include analog, mixed-signal IC designs, especially low-power and low-jitter clock generation circuits.

Ju Yeop Kim, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology

Ju Yeop Kim (Student Member, IEEE) was born in Changwon, South Korea, in 1994. He received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), Ulsan, Korea, in 2017 and 2020, respectively. He is currently pursuing the Ph.D. degree with the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, Korea. His current research interests include CMOS analog/mixed IC designs, especially millimeter-wave clock/frequency generation systems.

Joo Eun Bang, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology

Joo Eun Bang (S’18) was born in Busan, South Korea, in 1995. She received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), Ulsan, South Korea, in 2018 and 2020, respectively. She is currently pursuing the Ph.D. degree with the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, South Korea. Her current research interests include low-power and high-performance analog, mixed-signal, and RF integrated circuits for emerging wireless/wired standards.

Jae Hyouk Choi, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology

Jae Hyouk Choi (Senior Member, IEEE) was born in Seoul, South Korea, in 1980. He received the B.S. degree (summa cum laude) in electrical engineering from Seoul National University, Seoul, in 2003 and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical and computer engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA, in 2008 and 2010, respectively. From 2010 to 2011, he was with Qualcomm, Inc., San Diego, CA, USA, where he was involved in designing multi-standard cellular transceivers. In 2012, he joined the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), Ulsan, South Korea, as a Faculty Member. Since 2019, he has been an Associate Professor with the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, South Korea. His research interests include low-power and high-performance analog, mixed-signal, and RF integrated circuits for emerging wireless/wired standards. Dr. Choi has been a TPC Member of the IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) since 2017 and the IEEE European Solid-State Circuits Conference (ESSCIRC) since 2016. He was the Country Representative of South Korea for the ISSCC Far-East Region in 2018. He has been a Distinguished Lecturer (DL) of the Solid-State Circuits Society (SSCS) since 2020.

Homepage : https://www.icsl.snu.ac.kr/

Published
2021-12-30
How to Cite
Shin, Y. H., Lim, Y. H., Park, S. E., Kim, J. Y., Bang, J. E., & Choi, J. H. (2021). Ultra-Low Power Quadrature LO-Generator. Journal of Integrated Circuits and Systems, 8(1). https://doi.org/10.23075/jicas.2022.8.1.006
Issue
Vol 8 No 1 (2022)
Section
Articles