This paper presents a low-noise amplifier (LNA) with single to differential conversion (Balun) for multi-standard radio applications. The proposed LNA combines a common-gate (CG) stage for wideband input matching and a common-source (CS) stage to cancel the noise and distortion of the CG stage. Using the proposed technique, a low noise figure (NF) is achieved while providing a wideband of operation. Furthermore, a feedback connection from the CS stage to the gate of the CG is employed to boost the transconductance of the CG stage ($g{m}_{CG}$), and an additional complementary transistor is applied at the CS stage using current reuse to increase the overall transconductance of the CS stage ($g{m}_{CS}$) without increasing the power consumed by the stage. This LNA was designed using TSMC 65 nm technology, and post-layout simulation results show operation across 0.5–5 GHz, a maximum power gain of 20 dB, 4 dB minimum NF, and third-order intercept point (IIP3) of −10 dBm while consuming only 5 mW of power from a 1.2 V supply.

This paper presents a K-band CMOS cross-coupled pair voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) that utilizes the varactor-only capacitor network. The proposed circuit features low parasitics and a compact capacitor network, such that the varactor in the analog tuning path directly affects the oscillation frequency with a large gain of the VCO, and the varactor in the digital tuning path results in minimal noise sources, thus achieving low phase noise for the automotive FMCW radar application. This VCO was designed using TSMC 65 nm technology, and the post-layout simulation results show a stable oscillation across 18–19.2 GHz, a minimum phase noise of −105.9 and −128 dBc/Hz at 1- and 10-MHz offset frequencies while dissipating 21 mW of power from a 1 V supply. Furthermore, no notable variations in phase noise are observed across the oscillation frequency tuning range. It reveals a figure of merit (FOM) of −178.3 dBc/Hz while using a varactor-only capacitor array and occupying a small chip area.

This paper presents a current-reused coupled oscillator with improved noise circulating technique for phase noise improvement. The proposed current-reused coupled oscillator with order of 2, where the noise circulation oscillator is stacked on top of PMOS cross-coupled oscillator solves the strict trade-off between power consumption and phase noise. The degeneration transistors for noise circulating operations are biased in triode-region instead of in saturation to provide an optimum delay in loop gain, such that the positive and negative phase change in the normalized impulse sensitivity function (ISF) become more symmetric. Thus, the 1/f³ phase noise is significantly improved. The voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) was implemented using CMOS 65nm technology, and the measurement results demonstrated its operation within a frequency range of 15.4–17 GHz (9.8% tuning range). Despite its low power dissipation of 6.3 mW, the VCO design exhibits excellent performance, offering a phase noise of -111.2 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset frequency. Furthermore, the proposed VCO attains a figure of merit (FoM) of -187.4 dBc/Hz.

In multi-input multi-output (MIMO) pulse radar systems, precise pulse generation is critical for achieving high measurement resolution and detection accuracy in imaging and monitoring applications. This work presents a wide-range, tunable pulse generator for the pulse radar array system. The proposed pulse generator, based on a high-efficiency delay-locked loop (DLL) and a high-precision NOR-based edge combination scheme, offers a broad pulse-tuning range and minimal pulse-width error. Specifically, the DLL generates 41 anti-phased outputs, which are processed by the NOR gate with appropriate delay time and equal loading effects. A transmission-gate-based multiplexer selects the desired pulse without introducing systematic mismatch. Operating at a 50-MHz reference frequency, the prototype circuit achieves a wide tuning range from 142 ps to 7.04 ns (4957%). The proposed circuit demonstrates an rms jitter of 6 ps while consuming 2.8–3.2 mW from a 1 V power supply, depending on the selected pulse width.

The miniaturization of dielectric sensing has driven the development of both oscillator- and receiver-based sensors. Wide-frequency-range and low-power-consumption voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs) are required as a reference clock for receiver-based dielectric spectroscopy. In this paper, we propose a switched coupled inductor VCO offering sufficiently wide bandwidth in a power-efficient manner. The proposed switched coupled inductor offers higher coupling factor and mutual inductance compared to direct switched inductor schemes along with a higher quality factor and tuning range. The proposed switched coupled inductor improved the frequency tuning range by 21% compared to the conventional VCO. The measurement results show that the proposed VCO oscillates from 4.7 to 8.8 GHz frequency, suitable for dielectric spectroscopy sensors. With only 4.5 mW power consumption, the proposed VCO can achieve −103.3 dBc/Hz phase noise at 1 MHz offset, with a resulting tuning range figure-of-merit (FOM_T) of −187.4 dBc/Hz.