Ultra-Wideband, Low-Voltage, Low-power, Low Phase Noise CMOS Voltage Controlled Oscillator

This Phase II proposal is submitted in response to the DoD’s need for a low-power, US-sourced, ultra-wideband VCO designed to work over -55şC to 125şC, with high level of programmability and reconfigurability, targeting height-of-burst sensor applications in proximity fuzes, and other DoD applications. This Phase II proposal builds upon TeraSpatial’s Phase I designs, and aims to tape out, fabricate, characterize and provide customer samples of the proposed designs. Two all-CMOS design variants (A-VCO and D-VCO) are proposed. The first design is intended for use as an analog-tuned VCO in either open-loop configuration, or within a traditional analog phase-locked loop (PLL) frequency synthesizer. The second design is digitally tuned and can support wider modulation bandwidth in open-loop configuration as a standalone digitally-controlled oscillator, or in a digital phase locked loop frequency synthesizer. If successful, this design can enable a high-performance solution for next-generation fuze systems, but also enable a flexible/configurable frequency synthesis solution applicable to a wider set of use cases across the DoD. In summary, we expect that the performance and flexibility afforded by the proposed designs will be valuable to the DoD in a variety of sensing or ranging system configurations as well as in communication applications.