volume | PIER Journals

Abstract

This paper concerns the analysis of the performance of a Composite Right-/Left-Handed (CRLH) distributed oscillator. In order to increase its output power, a modification of the standard configuration is proposed. The basic idea is to combine the signals from the two output ports of the structure by means of a Wilkinson combiner, so obtaining a single output generator. The power performance of the conventional two output oscillator and the power performance of the new configuration are numerically compared by changing the number of employed transistors. The same procedure is adopted to analyze the amplitude of the higher order harmonics in the generated signals as a function of the number of active elements. On the basis of simulated data an increase of the output power, together with a second harmonic reduction, is expected for the single output oscillator with respect to the standard CRLH topology. Experimental results fully confirm these numerical predictions.

1. Skvor, Z., S. R. Saunders, and C. S. Aitchison, "Novel decade electronically tunable microwave oscillator based on the distributed amplifier," Electronics Letters, Vol. 28, No. 17, 1647-1648, 1992.
doi:10.1049/el:19921048

2. Niclas, K. B., W. T. Wilser, T. R. Kritzer, and R. R. Pereira, "On theory and performance of solid-state microwave distributed amplifiers," IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., Vol. 31, No. 6, 447-456, 1983.
doi:10.1109/TMTT.1983.1131524

3. Ballweber, B. M., R. Gupta, and D. J. Allstot, "A fully integrated 0.5–5.5-GHz CMOS distributed amplifier," IEEE Trans. Solid-State Circuits, Vol. 35, No. 2, 231-239, 2000.
doi:10.1109/4.823448

4. Bartolucci, G., F. Giannini, and L. Scucchia, "Design considerations for the gate circuit in distributed amplifiers," IET Circuits Devices Systems, Vol. 4, No. 3, 181-187, 2010.
doi:10.1049/iet-cds.2008.0319

5. Bartolucci, G., "Image parameter modeling of analog traveling-wave phase shifters," IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I: Fundamental Theory and Applications, Vol. 49, No. 10, 1505-1509, 2002.
doi:10.1109/TCSI.2002.803364

6. Divina, L. and Z. Skvor, "The distributed oscillator at 4 GHz," IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Techn., Vol. 46, No. 12, 2240-2243, 1998.
doi:10.1109/22.739204

7. Wu, H. and A. Hajimiri, "Silicon-based distributed voltage-controlled oscillators," IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, Vol. 36, No. 3, 493-502, 2001.
doi:10.1109/4.910488

8. White, C. J. and A. Hajimiri, "Phase noise in distributed oscillators," IET Electronics Letters, Vol. 38, No. 23, 1453-1454, 2002.
doi:10.1049/el:20020982

9. Aku, M. O. and R. S. Imam, "Silicon bipolar distributed oscillator design and analysis," Science World Journal, Vol. 9, No. 4, 29-38, 2014.

10. Bhattacharyya, K., "CMOS Ku/K band distributed oscillators using cascade of CPW coupled n- FETs gain cells with record performance of phase noise and Ka-band third harmonic generation technique," IEEE 11th Annual Wireless and Microwave Technology Conference (WAMICON), 1-4, 2010.

11. Bhattacharyya, K., "Tunable distributed harmonic voltage controlled oscillator for generating second and third harmonic microwave signals in 180 nm CMOS," International Conference on VLSI Systems, Architectures, Technology and Applications (VLSI-SATA), 1-4, 2016.

12. Simion, S. and G. Bartolucci, "High power efficiency distributed oscillator based on compositeright-/ left-handed unit cells," Appl. Phys. Lett., Vol. 107, 104102, 2015.
doi:10.1063/1.4930580

13. Maas, S. A., Microwave Mixers, Artech House, Norwood, MA, 1986.

Dr. Giancarlo Bartolucci

Prof. Stefan Simion

Dr. Lucio Scucchia