Silicon bipolar VCO family for 1.1 to 2.2 GHz with fully-integrated tank and tuning circuits

This work introduces fully-integrated VCOs implemented in the mature ISOSAT silicon bipolar RFIC process. The ISOSAT silicon bipolar process has transistors with 15GHz f/sub T/ and 30GHz f/sub max/, along with MIS capacitors of Q > 50 and spiral inductors with Q up to 10 for the values and frequency range of interest. Recently, a voltage-variable capacitor (or varactor) was characterized within the process. This device has up to 3:1 capacitance range from 0 to 3V reverse bias and also has Q of 3060 in the 1.1-2.2GHz frequency range desired for these VCOs.