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An LC VCO whose design includes deliberate circuit mismatches is presented. It is shown that such mismatches can reduce the oscillation start-up time due to a common-mode disturbance simultaneous with the turn-on of the tail current. The use of this technique is applied to a low-power transmitter for an ultra-wideband wireless communication system using the on–off keying modulation scheme. Measurements using a 0.18- \mu \textm CMOS technology with a 4.2-GHz carrier frequency demonstrate the technique. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]