A low power sigma-delta fractional-N frequency synthesizer for software-defined radio (SDR) implemented in a 0.13µm CMOS process is presented, based on a dual-mode VCO (DMVCO) reconfigurable between wideband mode and quadrature mode, with optimized automatic frequency calibration (AFC). The proposed optimized AFC enables a more accurate band selection as well as a lower power for a dual-VCO PLL. A multi-phase counter (MPC) accelerates the calibration process without ruining the calibration accuracy. Simulated phase noise is −123dBc/Hz at 1MHz offset from a 1.8GHz carrier. The spectral purity is better than 45dBc from the output of mixer. The locking time of PLL is about 40µs with an AFC time less than 10µs. The 0.4–6GHz synthesizer consumes only 35mW to 51mW from a 1.2V supply.