NTUA-ECE Microelectronic Circuit Design Group (MCDG) received the Best Paper on Communication Systems @MOCAST
We are pleased to announce that the paper entitled "A 28GHz Low-Phase Noise QVCO in 22nm FD-SOI using Back-Gate Coupling" received the Best Paper Award in the 14th International Conference on Modern Circuits and Systems Technologies (MOCAST) that was held on June 11-13, 2025 in Dresden, Germany.
The award-winning paper was co-authored by Prof. Georgios Panagopoulos (Assistant Professor, ECE-NTUA), Vasileios Chondrorrizos (TU Delft), Vasileios Manouras (National Technical University of Athens), and Prof. Yannis Papananos (Professor, ECE-NTUA).
Abstract: This paper presents a quadrature VCO with an output frequency centered at 28 GHz, making it well-suited for 5G and 6G applications. A novel feedback technique utilizing the transistors' backgate is proposed to couple the two VCOs. The core of the two LC-tuned QVCOs is optimized to achieve superior phase noise, making it highly suitable for mmWave frequency synthesizers. Developed in 22nm FDSOI technology, the proposed VCO operates from 27 GHz to 29.2 GHz, achieving a phase noise of −113 dBc/ Hz at a 1MHz offset relative to the 28 GHz carrier frequency. It demonstrates an excellent FoM of −196 dBc/ Hz and a tuning range of 8%, while consuming 4mW from a 0.8V supply.