Project aims for novel oscillator for wireless ICs

Edited by the Electronicstalk editorial team Aug 4, 2005

The Tunamos project aims to demonstrate the breakthrough concept spin torque in a nanoscale microwave integrated oscillator for application in wireless integrated devices.

The Tunamos project (tunable nanomagnetic oscillators for integrated transceiver applications) aims to demonstrate the breakthrough concept spin torque in a nanoscale microwave integrated oscillator for application in wireless integrated devices.

The project is part of the FP6 programme of the EU and is being co-ordinated by IMEC.

Other partners in the Tunamos project are STMicroelectronics, UPS Universite Paris Sud and UFSD University of Sheffield.

The project was launched on 1st June 2005 and will run for 3 years.

The recent discovery of the spin torque oscillator, a nanopatterned ferromagnetic device in which high-quality tunable microwave oscillations can be generated by a small DC current, opens perspectives to solve the paradigms in microwave engineering design.

None of the RF oscillators existing today combines a high-quality resonance with a high integration level, necessary for low-power and low-cost applications, and wideband tunability.

The frequency of the oscillation generated by the spin torque oscillator can be tuned by a magnetic field as well as by the current in a range of 5-40GHz.

Quality factors as high as 18000 have been observed, making the magnetic flute a natural current-controlled RF source.

This electronic device is extremely suitable for integration because of the nanoscale dimensions (diameter of the contact less than 100nm) and the simple structure of the metallic magnetic multilayer.

The fabrication is compatible with the back-end flow of standard Si technology and can fully profit from the cost/scalability economics reflected by Moore's law.

The Tunamos project aims to study the oscillating modes in the range of 5-10GHz as well as the influence of parameters (eg temperature, geometry etc) on the microwave frequency, signal power and phase noise.

Monolithic integration with a high-gain RF CMOS amplifier circuit will boost the power to levels suitable for wireless applications.

This oscillator has the potential of bringing closer the vision of integrating flexible and agile low-cost radio capability into every silicon product of the intelligent environment of tomorrow.