This paper reports a 12？GHz rotary travelling wave (RTW) voltage controlled oscillator designed in a 130？nm CMOS technology. The phase noise and power consumption performances were compared with the literature and with telecommunication standards for broadcast satellite applications. The RTW VCO exhibits a ？106？dBc/Hz at 1？MHz and a 30？mW power consumption with a sensibility of 400？MHz/V. Finally, requirements are given for a PLL implementation of the RTW VCO and simulated results are presented. 1. Introduction In a Ku-band satellite receiver, usually the signal picked up by the dish antenna is amplified by a low noise block (LNB) designed with compound semiconductor HEMT (high electron mobility transistor) and the local oscillator is a dielectric resonator oscillator (DRO) [1]. Recently, efforts have been made to design a satellite receiver using CMOS technologies [2, 3]. In [2] the design was focused on the receiver chain only (LNA and mixer) while in [3] the whole LNB was addressed, where the receiver exhibits a traditional superheterodyne and the local oscillator is a traditional differential VCO. Because of the image frequency issue, the RF designer should introduce image rejection filters, facing therefore all the related troubles. Solutions alternative to the traditional approach (superheterodyne architecture plus image rejection filter) can be envisaged at architectural level in two ways: an image rejection architecture or a direct conversion architecture. In the former solution the architecture is an interferometric structure where the image frequency signal destructively interferes with itself while the desired RF signal constructively interferes with itself. In the latter solution image and RF signal coincide. Both above cited solutions require a demodulator configuration where a couple of mixers are driven by differential in quadrature signals. Their generation is usually obtained using quadrature VCOs, as preferred solution with respect to polyphase filters, ring oscillators, or frequency dividers. In particular, in the present paper, a rotary travelling wave voltage controlled oscillator (RTW VCO) in a 130？nm CMOS technology is investigated having in mind the idea of improving the Ku-band satellite receiver architecture by replacing the previously sketched out traditional superheterodyne architecture with an image rejection architecture, so that the image frequency rejection filters can be avoided in the receiver design. In the design of the VCO attention should be paid to the phase noise, which is a very stringent specification for the
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