Self-noise cancelling technique for voltage-controlled oscillators

Abstract

A noise cancellation technique for a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO), which does not require a reference clock, is presented. The key idea is to employ a feedback loop around a VCO using a voltage-controlled delay line and an integrator which detects and cancels the noise of the VCO. Unlike conventional VCOs, the output frequency of the proposed VCO is indirectly changed using the voltage-controlled delay line. The proposed idea is verified in theory and simulation.