Low Phase Noise Millimeter-Wave Voltage Controlled Oscillators Based on Electromagnetic Bandgap Material Resonators

This paper introduces novel oscillators for direct frequency synthesis at millimeter-wave frequencies. The first approach targeting ultra-low phase noise adopts a reduced filling factor electromagnetic bandgap (EBG) resonator fabricated from high-resistivity silicon (HRS). This was combined with a SiGe-BiCMOS chip comprising a two-stage loop amplifier, coupler, electronic phase shifter and an output amplifier. Using a phased-locked loop (PLL) circuit incorporating a commercial sampling phase detector (SPD) and a low-noise reference source operating at 520 MHz, phase noise values of −81, −98 and −119 dBc/Hz were measured at offset frequencies of 0.1, 1 and 10 kHz, respectively, at a carrier frequency of 45.8 GHz. Additionally, we present approaches to improve the temperature drift of the oscillator by using EBG-resonators fabricated from temperature-stabilized microwave ceramics. The impact on tuning range and oscillator phase noise are addressed.