The State of the Art in CMOS VCOs: Mm-Wave VCOs in Advanced CMOS Technology Nodes

There is a growing interest in the realization of highly integrated radar transceivers operating at millimeter-wave (mm-wave) frequencies. In this case, CMOS is the natural technology choice. Modern nanoscale CMOS technologies offer excellent transistor performance with transit frequencies (fT) and maximum oscillation frequencies (fmax) exceeding several hundreds of gigahertz. This enables the realization of highly integrated, digitally intensive transceiver systems on chip for mmwave applications, such as 77-GHz automotive radar [1] or wireless data communication systems [2]. Several advanced nanoscale CMOS nodes even surpass the fTand fmaxvalues achieved by silicon germanium (SiGe) heterojunction bipolar transistor technologies [3].