A 2.55 GHz Wideband GaAs MMIC VCO

A 2.55 GHz MMIC Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO) with a tuning range of 31% has been developed using the indigenous 0.7 μm GaAs MESFET G7A process. The measured data indicates that a tuning range of 800 MHz (2550 ± 400MHz), and a minimum power output of 19.0 dBm were obtained in the first pass. The 7.9mm² chip comprises of an oscillator and a buffer amplifier, with the resonator on-chip and tuning varactors placed off-chip. The MMIC was operated at a bias of 5V and 120 mA and the measured singlesideband phase noise was better than -80dBc/Hz at an offset of 100 KHz.