A 0.3-V Compact VCO With Tail Filtering Using Double-8-Shaped Inductors in 65-nm CMOS
Abstract
This letter presents a 0.3-V double-8-shaped inductors-based voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO). It features a compact area, low power, and low magnetic coupling. The nested double-8-shaped inductors are proposed to achieve full magnetic-flux cancellation and the second harmonic tail filtering without area overhead. Fabricated in a 65-nm CMOS process, the prototyped VCO operates from 5.36 to 5.99 GHz while consuming less than 0.35 mW power under a 0.3-V supply. It achieves phase noise of −131.1 dBc/Hz at 10 MHz offsets, corresponding to a peak FoM of 190.2 dB. The proposed VCO with a compact core area of$240\times 125~\mu $m demonstrates high integration density and power efficiency, which is promising for compact and energy-efficient phase-locked loops (PLLs) in Internet-of-Things (IoT) radio applications.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Radio Frequency Integrated Circuit Design
Advancements in PLL and VCO Technologies
Advanced Power Amplifier Design
Publication details
- Journal / source
- IEEE Microwave and Wireless Technology Letters
- Publisher
- Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
- Volume
- 36
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 1055–1058
- Publication date
- 13 February 2026