Low conversion loss 94 GHz CMOS resistive mixer

Abstract

A 94 GHz CMOS resistive mixer is presented using the 65 nm CMOS process. Parasitic losses which are serious at high frequencies are minimised by adopting the optimised transistor size and symmetric transistor layouts as well as a scaled-down 65 nm CMOS technology, which contribute to reducing the conversion loss at 94 GHz by 2–3 dB, the conversion loss being 8.8–9.2 dB from 87 to 94 GHz of RF frequencies with an LO power of <7.6 dBm. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the best performance of CMOS resistive mixers operating in the frequency band of more than 90 GHz. The results also are competitive when compared with GaAs-based resistive mixers having moderate LO power requirements and a reasonable noise figure.