Reliability-Aware Microsystem Design; Compensation for an Ultra-Low-Power Current-Reuse LC-VCO

Aggressive technology scaling has led to a significant increase in manufacturing process variations and transistor aging effects, which critically degrade the performance of radio frequency (RF) circuits. These reliability challenges are particularly pronounced in voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs), where phase noise and operating frequency stability are compromised. While design strategies incorporating micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) actuators enhance VCO performance by leveraging MEMS varactors or inductors with substantially higher quality factors (Q), this benefit is progressively undermined over time by process variations and aging-induced shifts in the threshold voltage and carrier mobility of the VCO’s transistors. This work presents an ultra-low-power current-reuse voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) designed to maintain stable performance under process variability and reliability-induced parameter shifts. Robust operation is achieved using a self-detecting–correcting (SDC) bias scheme that senses performance drift and applies corrective feedback through body-bias control in the VCO core. Analytical relations are derived to describe the impact of threshold voltage and mobility variations, and the approach is validated via post-layout simulations in a 130 nm complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS). Under 18% variations in threshold voltage and carrier mobility, the proposed SDC scheme preserves oscillation frequency, phase noise, and figure of merit (FoM) while also mitigating the intrinsic output amplitude imbalance of conventional current-reuse VCOs. Monte Carlo analysis (500 runs) demonstrates low sensitivity to fabrication uncertainty, with a standard deviation below 0.14 dBc/Hz for phase noise, 210 kHz for oscillation frequency, and 0.4 dBc/Hz for FoM. The VCO operates from a 0.9 V supply, consumes 175 μW, and achieves −124 dBc/Hz phase noise at 1 MHz offset near 2.4 GHz (FoM ≈ −199 dBc/Hz).