A CMOS Quadrature LC Oscillator using Automatic Phase/Amplitude Calibration

In this paper, a novel LC quadrature oscillator (QO) is presented that can simply and automatically cancel the phase and amplitude errors raised by mismatches in LC tanks; the major source of phase and amplitude errors. The design is based on method of using unequal coupling factors in a parallel quadrature oscillator (P-QO). This method shows how we can cancel phase and amplitude errors simultaneously by choosing appropriate inversely proportional coupling factors. To cancel the errors, the proposed circuits first sense the phase error and increase or decrease the difference between the coupling factors accordingly. When tuning tail currents, the coupling factors can be simply adjusted. The entire system has a block diagram like a PLL. The dynamics of the proposed circuit is analyzed, and it is shown how the phase and amplitude error is canceled in response to an imposed LC tank mismatch. To evaluate the circuit, a QO has been designed to oscillate at 5 GHz with 1.8 V supply and 6.2 mA current consumption. The circuit has been simulated using TSMC 0.18 CMOS practical model where all the results confirm the analytical results.