A frame-based EM-simulation for design of LC oscillator with MoM capacitor banks

This article presents a simulation method for the design of a digitally controlled oscillator (DCO). Electromagnetic (EM) simulations are essential and inevitable for modern LC oscillator design. Although EM-simulators provide high accuracy, the EM-simulation time is very long when metal-oxide-metal (MoM) capacitors are present. The proposed frame-based EM-simulation can significantly reduce the EM-simulation time even in the presence of MoM capacitors without influencing the accuracy. To verify the proposed method, a DCO was fabricated using a 55-nm CMOS process. Measurements of the DCO are in good agreement with the frame-based post-layout simulation results. In addition, the DCO has good performances with a low power consumption of approximately 0.68 mW.