Method and apparatus for reconfigurable multicore oscillator

A method for operating a multicore inductor-capacitor (LC) oscillator where generating oscillation signals at an enabled subset of cores allows for adjustment of at least one of a collective phase noise characteristic in an outputted combined oscillation signal or an overall power consumption of the multicore oscillator, the method comprising:

• operating the multicore LC oscillator comprising a plurality of oscillator cores arranged in an array and each having an LC resonance tank by:
• generating oscillation signals at an enabled subset of the plurality of oscillator cores, where each oscillator core of the enabled subset is configured to have one of a first magnetic flux polarity and a second magnetic flux polarity opposite to the first magnetic flux polarity, and where a remainder of the plurality of oscillator cores is disabled and powered down, the remainder not being in the enabled subset and each of the subset and the remainder including at least one oscillator core, and where the enabling and disabling of the plurality of cores is reconfigurable;
• and
• outputting a combined oscillation signal formed based on the oscillation signals generated at the enabled subset of oscillator cores.

An apparatus providing for the selective reconfiguring of oscillator cores of a multicore oscillator to provide adjustment of at least one of a collective phase noise characteristic at a signal output circuitry or of a collective electromagnetic interference characteristic of the multicore oscillator, the apparatus comprising:

• a multicore inductor-capacitor (LC) oscillator having a plurality of oscillator cores arranged in an array and each having an LC resonance tank;
• signal output circuitry for electrically coupling outputs of the plurality of cores and for outputting a combined oscillation signal formed based on oscillation signals generated at a subset of the plurality of oscillator cores;
• and
• reconfigurable selection circuitry for selectively coupling the subset of the plurality of oscillator cores to the signal output circuitry for enabling the subset, and for selectively decoupling a remainder of the plurality of oscillator cores from the signal output circuitry for disabling the remainder, where the remainder is not in the subset and each of the subset and the remainder includes at least one oscillator core,
• the selection circuitry also for selectively configuring each oscillator core of the enabled subset of oscillator cores to have one of a first magnetic flux polarity and a second magnetic flux polarity opposite to the first magnetic flux polarity.