The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Apr. 25, 2017
Filed:
Mar. 11, 2014
Low noise and low power voltage-controlled oscillator (vco) using transconductance (gm) degeneration
Qualcomm Incorporated, San Diego, CA (US);
Thinh Cat Nguyen, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Jeongsik Yang, San Jose, CA (US);
Roger Thomas Brockenbrough, Los Gatos, CA (US);
Ara Bicakci, Belmont, CA (US);
Anup Savla, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Shen Wang, Palo Alto, CA (US);
QUALCOMM INCORPORATED, San Diego, CA (US);
Abstract
Certain aspects of the present disclosure generally relate to voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs) using a lowered or an adjustable negative transconductance (−g) compared to conventional VCOs. This −gdegeneration technique suppresses the noise injected into an inductor-capacitor (LC) tank of the VCO, thereby providing lower signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for a given VCO voltage swing, lower power consumption, and decreased phase noise. One example VCO generally includes a resonant tank circuit, an active negative transconductance circuit connected with the resonant tank circuit, and a bias current circuit for sourcing or sinking a bias current through the resonant tank circuit and the active negative transconductance circuit to generate an oscillating signal. The active negative transconductance circuit includes cross-coupled transistors and an impedance connected between the cross-coupled transistors and a reference voltage.