A 2.4 GHz Low-Noise Coupled Ring Oscillator with Quadrature Output for Sensor Networks

The voltage-controlled oscillator is one of the fundamental building blocks that determine the signal quality and power consumption in RF transceivers for wireless sensor networks. Ring oscillators are attractive owing to their small form factor and multi-phase capability despite the relatively poor phase noise performance in comparison with LC oscillators. The phase noise of a ring oscillator can be improved by using a coupled structure that works at a lower frequency. This paper introduces a 2.4 GHz low-noise ring oscillator that consists of two 3-stage coupled ring oscillators. Each sub-oscillator operates at 800 MHz, and the multi-phase signals are combined to generate a 2.4 GHz quadrature output. The voltage-controlled ring oscillator designed in a 65-nm standard CMOS technology has a tuning range of 800 MHz and exhibits the phase noise of −104 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset. The power consumption is 13.3 mW from a 1.2 V supply voltage.