Abstract. Oscillators play a decisive role for electronic equipment in many fields - like communication, navigation or data processing. Especially oscillators are key building blocks in integrated transceivers for wired and wireless communication systems. In this context the study of fully integrated differential VCOs has received attention. In this paper we present an analytic analysis of the steady state oscillation of integrated differential VCOs which is based on a nonlinear model of the oscillator. The outcomes of this are design formulas for the amplitude as well as the stability of the oscillator which take the nonlinearity of the circuit into account.