Balanced Resistive Mixer Research Articles

86 to 94GHzlow lossCMOSbalanced resistive mixer using an asymmetric broadside coupler and delay lines

AbstractAn 86 to 94 GHz balanced resistive mixer (BRM) is presented using a 65 nm complementary metal‐oxide‐semiconductor (CMOS) process. We minimize parasitic losses which are serious at high frequency by adopting symmetric transistor structures. A low loss 180° hybrid is implemented using an asymmetric broadside coupler and delay lines. This allows low‐loss implementation of 86 to 94 GHz BRMs, which represent a conversion loss of 10.3 to 13.0 dB from 86 to 94 GHz of RF frequencies. The balanced designs produce LO‐to‐RF isolations of 32 to 36 dB from 87 to 93 GHz. The proposed CMOS BRM shows competitive results when compared to GaAs‐ or InP‐based balanced resistive mixers having moderate LO power requirements.

500 GHz CMOS heterodyne imager adopting fourth subharmonic passive mixer

AbstractA 500 GHz heterodyne imager adopting a source‐driven fourth subharmonic single balanced resistive mixer is implemented in 65‐nm CMOS technology. The adopted passive mixer improves the port‐to‐port isolation and minimizes the input matching loss. At an LO power of 5 dBm, the imager achieves a conversion loss and double sideband noise figure of 30.2 dB and 51 dB, respectively, which corresponds to −93 dBm and 15.8 fW/Hz0.5 of sensitivity and the effective noise equivalent power, respectively, assuming a noise bandwidth of 1 kHz. To the best of authors' knowledge, the proposed work is the highest frequency implementation as a CMOS‐based heterodyne imagers adopting resistive mixers.

CMOS I/Q Subharmonic Mixer for Millimeter-Wave Atmospheric Remote Sensing

A compact second harmonic 180 GHz I/Q balanced resistive mixer is realized in a 32-nm SOI CMOS technology for atmospheric remote sensing applications. The MMIC further includes two on-chip IF amplifiers at the mixer's I and Q channels. A conversion gain of $+$ 8 dB is achieved with 74 mW of dc power consumption using a 1.2 V supply. The measured IF frequency range is from 1 to 10 GHz. The mixer achieves a 20 dB image-rejection (IR) ratio with an LO input power of $+$ 4 dBm. The chip size is 0.75 $\text{mm}^{2}$ including probing pads.

A wide bandwidth V-band balanced resistive mixer with a miniature meandering balun

We report a wideband resistive mixer fabricated in 0.15-μm pHEMT for 60-GHz frequency range, which includes an LO marchand balun and miniaturized IF lumped element balun.The measured conversion loss is less than 16 dB at RF bandwidth of 56–60 GHz with 2.4-GHz fixed IF frequency. The LO-to-IF and RF-to-IF isolations are better than 30 dB. The input P1dB and input IIP3 are obtained as high as −2 and 7 dBm, respectively. The miniature technique makes passive components more compact and easier to be integrated with IC circuit design. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 55:547–550, 2013; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/mop.27371

Design and fabrication of 94 GHz MMIC single balanced resistive mixer without IF balun

In this paper, a 94GHz microwave monolithic integrated circuit (MMIC) single balanced resistive mixer affording high LO-to-RF isolation was designed without an IF balun. The single balanced resistive mixer, which does not require an external IF balun, was designed using a 0.1μm InGaAs/InAlAs/GaAs metamorphic high electron mobility transistor (HEMT). The designed MMIC single balanced resistive mixer was fabricated using the 0.1μm MHEMT MMIC process. From the measurement, conversion loss of the single balanced resistive mixer was 14.7dB at an LO power of 10dBm. The P1dB (1dB compression point) values of the input and output were 10dBm and −5.3dBm, respectively. The LO-to-RF isolation of the single balanced resistive mixer was −35.2dB at 94.03GHz. The single balanced resistive mixer in this work provided high LO-to-RF isolation without an IF balun.

An Active IF Balun for a Doubly Balanced Resistive Mixer

In this letter, we present a wideband active intermediate frequency (IF) balun for a doubly balanced resistive mixer implemented using a 0.5 mum GaAs pHEMT process. The 0.3 times 0.5 mm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> IF balun was realized through a DC-coupled differential amplifier in order to extend IF frequency of the mixer to DC. The measured amplitude and phase imbalances were less than 1 dB and 5deg, respectively, from DC to 7 GHz. The output third order intercept (OIP3) and P1 dB of the IF balun were 18 dBm and 6 dBm, respectively at 1 GHz. The mixer with the IF balun is 1.7 times 1.8 mm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> in size, has a conversion loss of 2 to 8 dB from 8 to 20 GHz RF frequency at a fixed IF of 1 kHz, which proves the mixer operates successfully at an IF frequency close to DC. The measured OIP3 were +10 to +15 dBm over the operating frequency with a DC power consumption of 370 mW.

소형 IF 발룬이 내장된 MMIC 이중 평형 저항성 혼합기

본 논문에서는 <TEX>$0.5{\mu}m$</TEX> p-HEMT 공정을 이용한 MMIC 이중 평형 저항성 혼합기를 개발하였다. 본 혼합기에는 LO, RF, IF 등의 3개의 발룬이 포함된다. <TEX>$8{\sim}20\;GHz$</TEX> 범위에서 동작하는 LO와 RF 발룬은 Marchand 발룬으로 구현하였다. 칩 크기를 줄이기 위해 구부려진 다중 결합 선로를 이용하였고, 이로 인해 발생하는 모드 위상 속도 차이를 보상하기 위해 인덕터 선로를 삽입하였다. IF 발룬은 DC 결합 차동 증폭기로 구현하였다. <TEX>$0.3{\times}0.5\;mm^2$</TEX> 크기를 가진 IF 발룬의 측정 결과, DC에서 7 GHz 주파수 범위에서 크기와 위상의 오차가 각각 1 dB와 <TEX>$5^{\circ}$</TEX> 이내의 결과를 보였다. 개발된 <TEX>$1.7{\times}1.8\;mm^2$</TEX> 크기의 이중 평형 저항성 혼합기의 측정 결과, 동작 주파수 범위에서 16dBm LO 입력 전력에 대해 삽입 손실이 <TEX>$5{\sim}11\;dB$</TEX>이고, 출력 OIP3가 <TEX>$10{\sim}15\;dBm$</TEX>인 결과를 보였다. This paper presents a wideband doubly balanced resistive mixer fabricated using <TEX>$0.5{\mu}m$</TEX> GaAs p-HEMT process. Three baluns are employed in the mixer. LO and RF baluns operating over an 8 to 20 GHz range were implemented with Marchand baluns. In order to reduce chip size, the Marchand baluns were realized by the meandering multicoupled line and inductor lines were inserted to compensate for the meandering effect. IF balun was implemented through a DC-coupled differential amplifier. The size of IF balun is <TEX>$0.3{\times}0.5\;mm^2$</TEX> and the measured amplitude and phase unbalances were less than 1 dB and <TEX>$5^{\circ}$</TEX>, respectively from DC to 7 GHz. The mixer is <TEX>$1.7{\times}1.8\;mm^2$</TEX> in size, has a conversion loss of 5 to 11 dB, and an output third order intercept(OIP3) of +10 to +15 dBm at 16 dBm LO power for the operating bandwidth.

Millimeter-Wave Integrated Circuits in 65-nm CMOS

We present the design and measurement results of millimeter-wave integrated circuits implemented in 65-nm baseline CMOS. Both active and passive test structures were measured. In addition, we present the design of an on-chip spiral balun and the transition from CPW to the balun and report transistor noise parameter measurement results at V-band. Finally, the design and measurement results of two amplifiers and a balanced resistive mixer are presented. The 40-GHz amplifier exhibits 14.3 dB of gain and the 1-dB output compression point is at +6-dBm power level using a 1.2 V supply with a compact chip area of 0.286 mm2. The 60-GHz amplifier achieves a measured noise figure of 5.6 dB at 60 GHz. The AM/AM and AM/PM results show a saturated output power of +7 dBm using a 1.2 V supply. In downconversion, the balanced resistive mixer achieves 12.5 dB of conversion loss and +5 dBm of 1-dB input compression point. In upconversion, the measured conversion loss was 13.5 dB with -19 dBm of 1-dB output compression point.

X밴드 FMCW 레이더용 광대역 저항성 주파수 혼합기 구현

A mixer is key component in the wireless communication systems. In this paper, we design mixer which is used in modulated continuous wave(FMCW) radar system. The sweep range of the radar is from 10 GHz to 11 GHz. The transmitted and received signals of the FMCW radar are applied to LO and RF ports of the mixer, respectively, but the difference between the two signals, which is called a beat frequency is under few KHz and depending on the distance to target. Thus the isolation between the LO and RF ports is very important factor to design this mixer. In this paper we propose single balanced resistive mixer using GaAs MESFET for this application. We first design single-ended type resistive mixer using simulation tool, then design balanced type to increase the LO-to-RF isolation of the mixer. We fabricated the mixer on the substrate of dielectric constant 10 and thickness 0.635 mm. The measured results show that the isolation and conversion loss of the mixer over the band is 20dB and 10.5dB, respectively. The LO input power for operating the proposed mixer is +3dBm, which is lower than general conventional mixer`s LO power. The 1 dB compression point is 6dBm.

Highly integrated 60 GHz transmitter and receiver MMICs in a GaAs pHEMT technology

Highly integrated transmitter and receiver MMICs have been designed in a commercial 0.15 /spl mu/m, 88 GHz f/sub T//183 GHz f/sub MAX/ GaAs pHEMT MMIC process and characterized on both chip and system level. These chips show the highest level of integration yet presented in the 60 GHz band and are true multipurpose front-end designs. The system operates with an LO signal in the range 7-8 GHz. This LO signal is multiplied in an integrated multiply-by-eight (X8) LO chain, resulting in an IF center frequency of 2.5 GHz. Although the chips are inherently multipurpose designs, they are especially suitable for high-speed wireless data transmission due to their very broadband IF characteristics. The single-chip transmitter MMIC consists of a balanced resistive mixer with an integrated ultra-wideband IF balun, a three-stage power amplifier, and the X8 LO chain. The X8 is a multifunction design by itself consisting of a quadrupler, a feedback amplifier, a doubler, and a buffer amplifier. The transmitter chip delivers 3.7/spl plusmn/1.5 dBm over the RF frequency range of 54-61 GHz with a peak output power of 5.2 dBm at 57 GHz. The single-chip receiver MMIC contains a three-stage low-noise amplifier, an image reject mixer with an integrated ultra-wideband IF hybrid and the same X8 as used in the transmitter chip. The receiver chip has 7.1/spl plusmn/1.5 dB gain between 55 and 63 GHz, more than 20 dB of image rejection ratio between 59.5 and 64.5 GHz, 10.5 dB of noise figure, and -11 dBm of input-referred third-order intercept point (IIP3).

Coplanar integrated mixers for 77-GHz automotive applications

For integration in receivers at 77 GHz, three passive mixers, a balanced diode mixer, a single ended and a balanced resistive mixer, as well as an active single-ended gate mixer have been realized in coplanar 0.15-/spl mu/m PM-HEMT technology on GaAs. The passive mixers achieved conversion losses of about 9 dB. The resistive mixers required an LO power of only 3 dBm and the diode mixer 10 dBm for optimum conversion. The gate mixer obtained a conversion gain of 1 dB for an LO power of 6 dBm, but showed higher sensitivity to the IF load.