Dispersion-engineered CRLH stub resonator for low phase-noise oscillators

A composite right-/left-handed stub resonator is presented as a cost-effective approach to designing low phase-noise oscillators. By engineering the dispersion of the CRLH stub line, the novel resonator exhibits unloaded-Q value beyond the limit of microstrip line resonators. A 9-GHz oscillator using the compact resonator achieved a phase-noise of -134 dBc/Hz at 1-MHz offset despite the high dielectric loss of the substrate used. The proposed resonator has potential of eliminating the need to use expensive materials or large-scale circuit to improve the oscillator performance.