A semiconductor device and a communication circuit capable of reducing the effect of a noise generated in an inductor are provided. A semiconductor device according to an embodiment includes a substrate, a first circuit disposed in a first area of the substrate, a second circuit disposed in a second area of the substrate, the second circuit being configured to operate selectively with the first circuit, a first inductor disposed in the second area and connected to the first circuit, and a second inductor disposed in the first area and connected to the second circuit.

A resonant tank includes a first capacitor formed on a semiconductor substrate, a first inductor formed on the semiconductor substrate, a second capacitor formed on the semiconductor substrate, and a second inductor formed on the semiconductor substrate. The first capacitor, the first inductor, the second capacitor, and the second inductor are connected in a ring configuration, with each capacitor connected between a pair of the inductors and with each inductor connected between a pair of the capacitors. An amplifier circuit is coupled to the resonant tank and configured to amplify a signal in the resonant tank.

An apparatus comprises a digitally controlled circuit having a variable capacitance and a controller configured to adjust a magnitude of the variable capacitance of the digitally controlled circuit. The digitally controlled circuit comprises a plurality of gain elements, the plurality of gain elements comprising one or more positive voltage-to-frequency gain elements and one or more negative voltage-to-frequency gain elements. The controller is configured to adjust the magnitude of the capacitance by adjusting the gain provided by respective ones of the gain elements in an alternating sequence of the positive voltage-to-frequency gain elements and the negative voltage-to-frequency gain elements.

A circuit includes a first digital controlled oscillator and a second digital controlled oscillator coupled to the first digital controlled oscillator. A skew detector is connected to determine a skew between outputs of the first digital controlled oscillator and the second digital controlled oscillator, and a decoder is utilized to output a control signal, based on the skew, to modify a frequency of the first digital controlled oscillator using a switched capacitor array to reduce or eliminate the skew. A differential pulse injection oscillator circuit and a pulse injection signal generator circuit are also provided,

A variable capacitor circuit includes a capacitor block including a first varactor element comprising a first transistor having a first size, a second varactor element comprising a second transistor having a second size different from the first size, a first terminal commonly connected to a source and a drain of the first transistor, a second terminal commonly connected to a source and a drain of the second transistor, and an RC circuit connected to a gate of the first transistor and a gate of the second transistor.

VLSI distributed LC resonant clock networks having reduced inductor dimensions as well as simplified decoupling capacitances that are obtained by including one or more compensation capacitors. A compensation capacitor can be added in parallel with a clock capacitance and/or in parallel with a clock inductor. The presence of a compensation capacitance reduces the overhead associated with the inductor and the decoupling capacitor. The compensation capacitor (s) can be selectively switched into the network to create scalable resonant frequencies.

A voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) includes: a pair of inductors coupled in series; a first pair of varactors coupled in series, and a second pair of varactors coupled in series. A first common mode node is between the respective varactors of the first pair of varactors and a second common mode node is between the respective varactors of the second pair of varactors. A supply voltage node is switchably coupled to the first common mode node through a first switch, the supply voltage node being a node located between the pair of inductors. A control voltage node (V.sub.c) is switchably coupled to the second common mode node through a second switch.

A transformer based voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) is provided with a primary resonant circuit having a first inductor connected in parallel with a variable first capacitance circuit. A secondary resonant circuit is formed from a second inductor connected in parallel with a variable second capacitance circuit, and also includes a mode control circuit. The mode control circuit controls the direction of current flow through the secondary resonant circuit inductor. The first and second inductors are inductively mutually coupled in either an even mode or an odd mode in response to the mode control circuit. The VCO supplies a first resonant frequency in response to even mode operation, or a second resonant frequency, greater than the first resonant frequency, responsive to odd mode operation. The VCO may include a first electrically tunable varactor shunted across the first capacitance circuit and a second electrically tunable varactor shunted across the second capacitance circuit.

The invention relates to a radio frequency oscillator, the radio frequency oscillator comprising a resonator circuit being resonant at an excitation of the resonator circuit in a differential mode and at an excitation of the resonator circuit in a common mode, wherein the resonator circuit has a differential mode resonance frequency at the excitation in the differential mode, and wherein the resonator circuit has a common mode resonance frequency at the excitation in the common mode, a first excitation circuit being configured to excite the resonator circuit in the differential mode to obtain a differential mode oscillator signal oscillating at the differential mode resonance frequency, and a second excitation circuit being configured to excite the resonator circuit in the common mode to obtain a common mode oscillator signal oscillating at the common mode resonance frequency.

A voltage-controlled oscillator comprises a varactor. A capacitance of the first varactor is dependent upon a control voltage. The voltage-controlled also comprises an inductor. The inductor is connected to a center-tap connection. The voltage-controlled oscillator also comprises a power source. The power source is configured to provide a bias voltage to the inductor through the center-tap connection. The voltage-controlled oscillator also comprises a coupling capacitor. The coupling capacitor is located between the inductor and the varactor. The voltage-controlled oscillator also comprises a coupling resistor. The coupling resistor is located between the coupling capacitor and the center-tap connection. The center-tap connection provides the bias voltage to the coupling capacitor through the coupling resistor.