Broadband 7 GHz VCO in mHEMT Technology

The design and characterization of a broadband VCO in a 0.15 μm mHEMT technology is presented. The VCO have an output power of 0 dBm and a broad output frequency from 6.5 to 7.4 GHz using a wide multi fingered mHEMT as varactor. Phase noise is -87 dBc/Hz at 100 kHz offset exhibiting a 30 dB/decade slope due to large flicker noise sources. A comparison both to a similar pHEMT VCO and other pHEMT VCOs in the literature is included