A Wideband, Varactor-Tuned Microstrip VCO

5/1/12
A Wideband, Varactor-tuned Microstrip VCO
Advertisement
HOME
News
Channels
Aerospace & Defense
Cellular/4G/LTE/WiMAX
Masters of MIMO
Test & Measurement
Software/EDA
RFID/GPS/Location
Industrial/Scientific/Medical
eLearning
Webinars
White Papers
Design Tools
Community
Blogs
RF and Microwave LinkedIn Group
Microwave Journal Facebook Page
Twitter
Pinterest
Events
Webinars
Trade Shows
Training-User Meetings
RF/MW Zone-CTIA
IMS2012
Buyers Guide
Multimedia
Photo Galleries
Videos
Magazine
Current Issue
Archives
www.microwavejournal.com/articles/2660-a-wideband-varactor-tuned-microstrip-vco
1/14
5/1/12
Subscribe
Subscription Renewal
Sign-In / Subscribe
Subscriber Services
MWJ China
View Cart
Find Advanced Search
Recent Searches"Over-The-Air Testing of Diversity and MIMO Capable Terminals" / wave guide / products / dual
mode filter / tuning filters
Enter Keywords
Entire Site
Advertisement
In Print
Digital Edition Online Edition

Featured
Architecture and Amplifier Device Developments in CATV Networks

Explores the CATV industry and how developments in amplifier technology will address future needs
Featured
I/Q Demodulator Eases Bandwidth Constraints

A new wide bandwidth zero-IF I/Q demodulator addresses dynamic range and bandwidth shortcomings of traditional
2/14
5/1/12
designs
Featured
3G Power Amplifiers: Moving from GaAs to CMOS

Robert Wagner, director of marketing, provides a commentary on how 3G CMOS PAs are outperforming traditional
GaAs handset modules
The MWJ Buyer's Guide
Click this featured vendor's logo for the latest RF/microwave products, catalogs, brochures and company news.
Visit Buyer's Guide | Get Your Company Listed
Popular
Most Viewed
Recent Comments
RFMD unveils rGaN-HV process technology

Wamicon 2012 Show Wrap-Up
RFMD announces March quarterly results
Cobham appoints new CEO
Three Chinese cellphone suppliers join Forward Concepts' Top 10
Advertisement
3/14
5/1/12
Multimedia
Photos
Videos
Podcasts
Image Galleries
Wamicon 2012
Wamicon 2012, Cocoa Beach, FL
Videos
Powered by ePublishing
More media
I cant live without you

What's the most important tool in your design arsenal?
Vector Network Analyzers (VNA)
Planar or 3D Electromagnetic Simulation
Harmonic Balance Simulation
The Multi-project Wafer Shuttle Run (Pizza Mask)
PCB Prototype Milling Machine
Submit
See Poll Results Poll Archive

Home A Wideband, Varactor-tuned Microstrip VCO
Industry News

The design of a varactor-tuned VCO covering an octave frequency range up to 4 GHz and more
By Matjaz Vidmar
June 01, 1999
0 Comments
EMAIL / PRINT / REPRINTS /
| More / Text Size +
4/14
5/1/12
Larger Smaller
[X]
0
Like
Related Articles
A Varactor-tuned Oscillator with Linear Tuning Characteristics

A Wideband VCO for Set-top Applications
A Low Noise Wideband Microwave Oscillator Using a Tunable
Microstrip Combline Filter
Related Events
ICUWB 2012 (September 17, 2012 - September 20, 2012)

Matjaz Vidmar
University of Ljubljana
Slovenia
When electrical tuning of an oscillator is required over a wide microwave
frequency range, yttrium iron garnet (YIG)-tuned oscillators usually provide the
widest frequency coverage as well as relatively low phase noise. While YIGtuned oscillators generally provide a tuning range of more than one octave, the
tuning range of varactor-tuned VCOs is much more restricted. Furthermore, all
available varactors are rather lossy capacitors with low Q values at frequencies
above 1 GHz, degrading the phase noise of the oscillator.
Wideband, varactor-tuned microwave VCOs are usually built as hybrid
microcircuits to reduce device parasitics. Expensive GaAs varactor chips are
used to simultaneously increase the frequency coverage and reduce the phase
noise due to the better Q of GaAs varactors when compared to their silicon
counterparts. Although varactor-tuned VCOs cannot compete with YIG VCOs
directly, significant improvements can be made with a better varactor-tuned VCO
circuit design.
5/14
5/1/12
This article presents the design of a varactor-tuned VCO covering an octave

frequency range up to 4 GHz and more. The VCO design uses standard surfacemount device (SMD) components, including inexpensive silicon varactors.
Furthermore, the VCO is built using conventional microstrip technology on
inexpensive FR-4 circuit-board laminate. Finally, the phase noise of the described
VCO is reasonably low (approximately 20 dB worse than a free-running YIG
oscillator).
Wideband VCO Design
Wideband VCO design with negative-resistance active devices
is difficult due to circuit parasitics. Two-port amplifier devices
offer the designer more freedom. A basic microstrip oscillator
design with a two-port amplifying device is shown in Figure 1 .
Any oscillator design requires an amplifier and a frequency-selective feedback
network. Besides the desired frequency response, the feedback network should
also provide the correct phase shift so that the total phase shift in the feedback
loop equals an integer multiple of 360. Of course, this total phase shift also
includes the phase shift inside the active device, which is usually much larger
than 180 due to device and package parasitics at microwave frequencies.
In the case of a microstrip oscillator, the feedback network may include an
interdigital bandpass filter to determine the oscillator frequency. Additional
phasing microstrip lines are required to bring the total phase shift to an integer
multiple of 360 at the desired operating frequency. In addition, the feedback
network should be designed so that oscillation is only possible at the fundamental
mode of the interdigital bandpass filter, while oscillations at higher order
resonance are suppressed.
A fixed-frequency oscillator can be modified into a VCO by inserting one or
more varactors into the circuit. If a single varactor is inserted in series with the
central finger of the interdigital bandpass, frequency coverage of approximately
10 percent around a central frequency of 2 GHz can be obtained. Although a
single varactor may tune the interdigital bandpass over a wider frequency band,
the desired phase shift cannot be maintained over the wider range to keep the
oscillator running.
6/14
5/1/12
A wideband microstrip VCO can be built only if the phase velocities of all
microstrip lines are controlled. The phase velocity of a microstrip line can be
controlled using several series or parallel variable reactances distributed along
the microstrip line. A series connection is usually used at microwave frequencies
due to the relatively high capacitance of available varactors.
A tunable microstrip oscillator design is shown in Figure 2 .
The phase velocity of the microstrip lines is controlled by
several variable capacitors connected in series in the
transmission lines. The capacitors adjust both the center
frequency of the microstrip bandpass filter and the overall
phase shift of the feedback network. If the spacing between
adjacent variable reactances is kept sufficiently small (less than one-quarter
wavelength at the maximum operating frequency), very wide tuning ranges are
possible.
A Practical S-band VCO
The circuit diagram of a practical wideband, varactor-tuned microstrip VCO
operating in the S-band (2 to 4 GHz) is shown in Figure 3 . The
feedback network includes an interdigital bandpass filter tuned
with six type BB833 silicon, hyperabrupt varactors (0.75 pF
minimum capacitance, 1.8 W series resistance, SOD-323 SMD
package). Several 22 kW resistors are used as resonance-free
RF chokes to apply the same tuning voltage to all six varactors.
Due to the low Q of the varactors used, the insertion loss of the feedback network
is rather high. Therefore, a type BFP420 high ft silicon bipolar transistor (ft = 25
GHz, SOT-343 SMD package) is required as the active device. The DC bias is
provided by a simple resistor network. In order to isolate the oscillator, only a
very small fraction of the RF signal is taken through a resistive divider from the
collector to the output.
7/14
5/1/12
Some components are required only to simplify the printedcircuit-board layout (for example, the series connection of two
4.7 kW resistors for the base bias). Other components are
required to suppress unwanted resonances, such as the two 100
W resistors in the varactor bias circuit. Finally, the VCO is
followed by two buffer stages to further isolate the output, as
shown in Figure 4 .
The microstrip circuit was etched on 0.8-mm-thick, double-sided FR-4 glass
fiber-epoxy laminate. Two different layouts were tested, both
with dimensions of 20 mm x 80 mm, as shown in Figure 5 . The
narrowband version uses higher impedance microstrip lines in
the feedback network, resulting in stronger coupling and lower
insertion loss. The wideband version uses wider microstrip
lines, resulting in weaker coupling and higher insertion loss, but
with wider frequency coverage using the same varactors. All passive SMD
components (resistors and capacitors) are standard size 0805 parts.
If the described VCO is to be redesigned for different frequencies and/or different
varactors, the circuit size first should be scaled. Second, the center finger of the
microstrip bandpass should be tuned to obtain the correct phase shift in the
feedback loop. If tuning of the center finger shifts the operating frequency range
too much, the entire circuit must be scaled again. Next, tracking of the amplitude
and phase response should be checked while adjusting the varactor tuning
voltage. Finally, the amplitude response should be checked both at the desired
frequency and at the undesired higher order resonances of the microstrip feedback
network. This design procedure applies equally to computer simulation and
practical circuit tests.
The VCO's Measured Performance
Three versions of the described VCO were built. The first version was built on
the narrowband PCB 1 with BB833 varactors. The second version was built on
the wideband PCB 2 (also with BB833 varactors). The third version was built on
PCB 1 with better BB857 silicon hyperabrupt varactors (very small SCD-80
SMD package, 0.55 pF minimum capacitance and 1.5 W series resistance).
Several samples of all three versions were built and tested.
8/14
5/1/12
The typical tuning curves of all three VCO versions are plotted
in Figure 6 . The first version covers 2 to 3.85 GHz, depending
on the tolerances of the varactors used. The tuning range of the
second version is approximately 150 MHz wider, covering 2.05
to 4.05 GHz with the same varactors. The tuning range of the
third version extends from 2.4 to 4.6 GHz thanks to the
improved BB857 varactors.
The tuning range of all three versions can be extended by approximately 50 MHz
on the lower end by allowing the tuning voltage to turn negative to -0.7 V. The
tuning curves are quite nonlinear. The tuning slope exceeds 100 MHz/V at tuning
voltages of approximately 7 V and falls below 10 MHz/V at tuning voltages of
approximately 30 V. Since the VCOs were designed for the widest frequency
coverage, no attempt was made to linearize the frequency/voltage response in the
RF circuit.
Since specialized phase noise test equipment was not available, the phase noise
of the available model HP8593EM spectrum analyzer was first roughly estimated.
The phase noise of the analyzer was determined to be sufficiently low to
accurately measure the phase noise of the described VCOs. Two samples of the
first and second versions (with BB833 varactors) were packaged in shielded
cases and connected to well-filtered supply and tuning voltage sources.
The single-sideband (SSB) phase plots, shown in Figure 7 , demonstrate that the
described VCOs are roughly 20 dB worse than the YIG
oscillator inside the spectrum analyzer. Interestingly, the phase
noise is approximately 5 dB stronger at the band center than at
the band edges, suggesting that at least part of the phase noise is
caused by thermal noise voltage generated in the 22 kW
resistors that is modulating the VCO frequency at the point
where the tuning slope is the steepest.
Possible VCO Improvements
Although the frequency coverage of the described VCO exceeds the advertised
performance of commercially available hybrid VCOs, many improvements to the
described circuit are still possible. In particular, the phase noise performance
probably could be improved. Last, but not least, the described VCO design can
9/14
5/1/12
be readily adapted to other two-port active devices, such as GaAs FETs, high
electron mobility transistors, heterojunction bipolar transistors or MMIC
amplifiers.
Part of the phase noise is caused by the 22 kW resistors used as resonance-free
chokes to bring the tuning voltage to the varactors. Lower resistor values cannot
be used since the RF circuit losses increase. True RF chokes (inductors) should
be selected carefully to avoid parasitic resonances in the frequency range of
interest.
The phase noise performance could also be improved by replacing the simple
resistor bias network of the BFP420 transistor. Since the S parameters of bipolar
transistors depend mainly on the DC bias currents through the transistor, the
transistor's operating point should be accurately stabilized to further improve the
phase noise performance.
Both the phase noise and long-term (thermal) stability of the VCO could be
improved by using a better microstrip material than the suggested FR-4 glass
fiber-epoxy laminate. This material has a high temperature coefficient, shifting the
VCO frequency downwards by a few megahertz for each degree of temperature
increase. Besides lower temperature coefficients, suitable microwave substrates
should also provide lower losses and higher Qs for the microstrip resonators.
The nonlinear frequency/voltage response of the described
VCO design may require a linearizer. A simple tuning slope
linearizer circuit is shown in Figure 8 . The gain of the two
operational amplifiers is set to the lowest value around the
reference voltage of +7 V DC (where the VCO tuning slope is
the steepest). At lower and higher tuning voltages, some
positive feedback is switched in so that the overall gain increases to compensate
for the decay that occurs in the tuning sensitivity.
The requirements for the linearizer response could also be estimated form the
varactor diode capacitance (CT = f(VR)) curves shown in Figure 9 . Curves for
the BB833 and BB857 varactors clearly show that the maximum relative
capacitance change occurs between 5 and 10 V. Above 15 V, the capacitance
curves become flat, resulting in a decrease in the VCO's tuning slope.
10/14
5/1/12
The presettable potentiometers P1 to P8 permit the switching points to be set.

Since the upper part of the tuning curve is much more nonlinear
than the lower part, six switching points are used in the upper
part (resistors R+) and only two switching points are used in the
lower part (resistors R-). Besides using low noise operational
amplifiers, the resistor values should be selected carefully to
avoid excessive noise generation in the linearizer circuit (resistor values too high)
or excessive power dissipation (resistor values too low).
Conclusion
A varactor-tuned VCO has been designed that uses standard SMD components
and inexpensive silicon varactors. The VCO's frequency tuning range is over one
octave and extends above 4 GHz. The VCO is built using low cost FR-4 PCB
material and achieves good SSB phase noise performance.
Acknowledgment
The author wishes to thank Knut Brenndoerfer of Siemens Semiconductors,
Munich, Germany, for supplying the many different varactors and other SMD
semiconductor samples without which the described VCO could not have been
developed.
Matjaz Vidmar received his BSEE and MSEE from the University of Ljubljana,
Slovenia in 1980 and 1983, respectively. He received his PhD in 1992, also
from the University of Ljubljana, for developing a single-frequency GPS
ionospheric correction receiver. Vidmar is currently teaching undergraduate
and postgraduate courses in electrical engineering at the University of
Ljubljana. His current research includes high speed electronics for optical fiber
communications. Vidmar is also taking part in amateur satellite projects. He
developed very high efficiency VHF and UHF transmitters that were
successfully flown in space on the Microsat mission in 1990.
Recent Articles by Matjaz Vidmar
Microstrip Resonant Phase Shifters

A Microwave Analog Frequency Divider
11/14
5/1/12
Company Profile
Contact Information
Contact:
Phone: (508) 665-4400
Fax: (508) 665-4401
Email: info@us.cst.com
Web Site: http://www.cst.com
Location
CST of America Inc.
492 Old Connecticut Path Ste #505
Framingham MA 01701
US
Company Profile
Contact Information
Contact:
Phone: (800) 829-4444
Fax: (800) 829-4433
Email: Contact_Us@agilent.com
Web Site: http://www.agilent.com
Location
Agilent Technologies
5301 Stevens Creek Blvd.
Santa Clara CA 95051
US
Company Profile
12/14
5/1/12
Contact Information
Contact:
Phone: (781) 376-3000
Fax: (781) 376-3100
Email: sales@skyworksinc.com
Web Site: http://www.skyworksinc.com
Location
Skyworks Solutions Inc.
20 Sylvan Rd.
Woburn MA 01801
US
0 Comments
Add Comment
Advertisement
Home
About Us
Contact Us
Advertise With Us
Submit An Article
Reprints
Privacy
Copyright 2012 All Rights Reserved. Design, CMS, Hosting & Web Development :: ePublishing.
Sign-In
13/14
5/1/12
Email
Password
Remember me Forgot your password?
No Account? Sign Up!

Get access to premium content and e-newsletters by registering on the web site. You can also subscribe to Microwave
Journal magazine.
Sign-Up
Translate
Pin it!
14/14

A Wideband, Varactor-Tuned Microstrip VCO

Enviado por

Dados do documento

Título original

Direitos autorais

Formatos disponíveis

Compartilhar este documento

Compartilhar ou incorporar documento

Opções de compartilhamento

Você considera este documento útil?

Este conteúdo é inapropriado?

Direitos autorais:

Formatos disponíveis

A Wideband, Varactor-Tuned Microstrip VCO

Enviado por

Direitos autorais:

Formatos disponíveis

5/1/12

A Wideband, Varactor-tuned Microstrip VCO

A Wideband, Varactor-tuned Microstrip VCO

Digital Edition Online Edition

Architecture and Amplifier Device Developments in CATV Networks

I/Q Demodulator Eases Bandwidth Constraints

A Wideband, Varactor-tuned Microstrip VCO

3G Power Amplifiers: Moving from GaAs to CMOS

The MWJ Buyer's Guide

RFMD unveils rGaN-HV process technology

A Wideband, Varactor-tuned Microstrip VCO

I cant live without you

See Poll Results Poll Archive

A Wideband, Varactor-tuned Microstrip VCO

| More / Text Size +

A Wideband, Varactor-tuned Microstrip VCO

A Varactor-tuned Oscillator with Linear Tuning Characteristics

ICUWB 2012 (September 17, 2012 - September 20, 2012)

A Wideband, Varactor-tuned Microstrip VCO

This article presents the design of a varactor-tuned VCO covering an octave

A Wideband, Varactor-tuned Microstrip VCO

A Wideband, Varactor-tuned Microstrip VCO

A Wideband, Varactor-tuned Microstrip VCO

A Wideband, Varactor-tuned Microstrip VCO

A Wideband, Varactor-tuned Microstrip VCO

The presettable potentiometers P1 to P8 permit the switching points to be set.

Microstrip Resonant Phase Shifters

A Wideband, Varactor-tuned Microstrip VCO

A Wideband, Varactor-tuned Microstrip VCO

A Wideband, Varactor-tuned Microstrip VCO

Remember me Forgot your password?

No Account? Sign Up!

Você também pode gostar