A 110–170-GHz Multi-Mode Transconductance Mixer in 250-nm InP DHBT Technology

Abstract

A novel full D-band (110–170 GHz) multi-mode transconductance down-converter mixer is realized in a 250-nm indium–phosphide double heterojunction bipolar transistor technology. A single-balanced topology is chosen and an active power combiner for the RF and the local oscillator (LO) signals’ combination is used. The designed mixer is feasible to work at $\, \times \,$ 1, $\, \times \,$ 2, $\, \times \,$ 3, $\, \times \,$ 4 subharmonically LO-pumped mixing modes with relatively low LO powers of 0, ${-}{\hbox{1}}$ , 5, and 6 dBm, respectively. The measured conversion gain achieves typical values of ${-}{\hbox{3}}$ , ${-}{\hbox{1}}$ , ${-}{\hbox{5}}$ , and ${-}{\hbox{4}}$ dB over the full D-band while the best noise figures of 12, 13.5, 18.5, and 19 dB are obtained, respectively. Through the multi-mode operation in terms of subharmonic LO-pump-frequency, the designer can make a tradeoff between LO frequency, LO power, and noise figure.