A 60-GHz double-balanced mixer with negative resistance compensation for direct up-conversion using 90-nm CMOS technology

Abstract

A 60-GHz double-balanced mixer for direct up-conversion using standard 90-nm CMOS technology is reported.The up-conversion mixer comprises a double-balanced Gilbert cell with negative resistance compensation for conversion gain (CG) enhancement, a Marchand balun for converting the single local oscillator (LO) input signal to differential signal, and another Marchand balun for converting the differential radio-frequency (RF) output signal to single signal. The mixer consumes 15.1 mW and achieves intermediate frequency (IF)-port input return loss of −36.7 dB at 0.1 GHz, LO-port input return loss of −9.9∼−19.1 dB, and RF-port input return loss of −12.4∼−31.3 dB for frequencies 57∼64 GHz. At IF of 0.1 GHz, the mixer achieves maximum CG of 4.5 dB at RF of 60 GHz. The corresponding 3-dB bandwidth of RF is 6.2 GHz (57.1∼63.3 GHz). The measured LO–RF isolation is 57.5 dB at RF of 60 GHz. In addition, the measured output 1-dB compression point and input third-order intermodulation point are −11.8 and −5 dBm, respectively, at RF of 60 GHz. These results demonstrate the proposed up-conversion mixer architecture is very promising for 60-GHz direct-conversion transceiver applications. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 55:536–543, 2013; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/mop.27352