High linearity 23–33 GHz SOI CMOS downconversion double balanced mixer

Abstract

A highly linear downconversion mixer is demonstrated in a digital 45 nm silicon on insulator (SOI) CMOS process. The mixer downconverts the radio frequency signal from 23–33 GHz to 12 GHz intermediate frequency. By using a multiple gated transistor (MGTR) technique and suppressing the large signals at twice of the LO frequency at the drain nodes of transconductors, the mixer achieves an input referred third-order intercept point (IIP3) of 17 dBm, a conversion power gain of −0.5 dB, and a single side band noise figure of 12.1 dB at the radio frequency of 28 GHz. This is the first CMOS MGTR Gilbert mixer operating near millimetre-wave frequencies and fabricated using SOI MOS transistors with a floating body.