Thursday, June 19, 2008

LC VCO

LC oscillators are probably the most common type of oscillators used in RFIC design. LC oscillator is part of the familly of the resonant oscillators and can be designed for a fixed frequency and variable frequency operation (with the use of a varactor).
LC VCO consist of two main stages: gain stage and LC tank.

LC VCO advantages:
Outstanding phase noise and jitter performance at high frequency.

LC VCO disadvantages:
1) Contains an inductor which is large area component and thus is less suitable for VLSI design
2) High power consumption
3) Relatavly small tuning range.