A low noise oscillator constructed using a rotary traveling wave oscillator. The conductors of the rotary traveling wave oscillator provide at any tap position a pair of oppositely phased oscillations and these oscillations have slightly different phases at positions that are slightly different on the conductors. Regeneration devices establish and maintain oscillations on the conductors of the traveling wave oscillator. A regeneration device made from p-channel and n-channel transistors is connected to the conductors of the traveling wave oscillator in such a way that the gate connections of the transistors receive the traveling wavefront before the drains of the transistors receive the wavefront. By the time the regeneration device switches in response to the wavefront arriving at the gates of the transistors, the wavefront has arrived at the drains. This creates little or no disturbance to the wave on the conductors and results in low phase noise.