Abstract

Accurate oscillator phase-noise simulation is a key problem in MMIC design, which is not solved satisfactory so far and needs further investigation. In this paper, a Ka-band MMIC oscillator with GaInP/GaAs HBT and on-chip resonator is treated as an example. Measured phase noise reaches -90 dBc/Hz and below at 100 kHz offset. To evaluate phase-noise predic-tion, the circuit is simulated using different commercial simulation tools and HBT models. Con-siderable differences in simulation results are observed.