Subharmonic Mixer Research Articles

Mixer-Based Characterization of Millimeter-Wave and Terahertz Single-Anode and Antiparallel Schottky Diodes

This paper presents an alternative characterization method to the traditional characterization methods of the millimeter-wave and terahertz Schottky diodes. The diodes can be characterized based on the mixer operation (conversion loss and noise temperature) under comparable conditions. The tuning of the embedding impedances and the easy changing of the diode under test allow the comparison of different diodes in their actual operating environment. A fundamental mixer test jig and a subharmonic mixer test jig are designed for the characterization and comparison of different single-anode and antiparallel Schottky diodes, respectively, at 183 GHz. For the antiparallel diodes, the traditional capacitance extraction is not possible, thus alternative and additional characterization data is valuable. The diode manufacturers can exploit the mixer-based characterization to test the mixer operation of their diode and to reveal possible problems with the diode during the diode development process.

14–30 GHz low‐power sub‐harmonic single‐balanced gate‐pumped mixer with transformer combiner in 0.18 μm CMOS

A 14-30 GHz sub-harmonic single-balanced gate-pumped mixer with a wideband transformer combiner in 0.18 μm CMOS technology is presented. The transistors of the sub-harmonic mixer core are biased at weak inversion to lower the required local oscillator (LO) driving power and DC power consumption. The wideband combiner including a Marchand balun and a 1:1:1 trifilar transformer was designed to combine the radio frequency (RF) and LO driving signals to produce four states of signals, where the RF frequency is about twice the LO frequency. Two quarter-wavelength transmission lines are adopted to improve the RF-to-intermediate-frequency (IF) and 2LO-to-IF isolations. The measured results show that the maximum conversion gain of -1 dB is at 18 GHz and a 3 dB bandwidth is from 14 to 30 GHz while applying the LO driving power of only 1 dBm. The total power consumption including the output buffer is only 7.8 mW.

Tunable 245 GHz transmitter and receiver in SiGe technology for gas spectroscopy

A 245 GHz sensor system for gas spectroscopy is presented, which includes an integrated SiGe transmitter (TX) and receiver (RX), and a 0.6 m-long gas absorption cell between the TX and RX modules. The integrated local oscillators (LOs) of TX and RX chips are controlled by two external phase-locked loops (PLLs), whose reference frequencies are swept with constant frequency offset for a low intermediate frequency of the RX. The RX consists of a differential low-noise amplifier, an integrated 122 GHz LO with a 1/64 divider, a 90° differential hybrid and an active subharmonic mixer. The TX consists of an integrated 122 GHz LO with a 1/64 divider, and a frequency doubler. The TX and RX chips are fabricated in 0.13 µm SiGe BiCMOS technology with f T/f max of 300 GHz/500 GHz. Using external dielectric lenses for the TX and RX modules, the gas absorption spectra were measured for acetonitrile and methanol.

A Q/Ku-K band MMIC double-balanced subharmonic diode ring mixer for satellite communications in GaAs pHEMT technology

A MMIC double-balanced subharmonic diode ring mixer was designed for broadband satellite communications exploiting a GaAs pHEMT process. The circuit implements the frequency conversion from Q (43.5–50 GHz) to Ku-K band (17–21.5 GHz). Besides the RF, LO, and IF baluns, the MMIC integrates a buffer amplifier for the local oscillator signal, which is designed between X and Ku bands (11–16.5 GHz), due to the subharmonic operation. The mixer measured conversion loss is between 8 and 12 dB along the bandwidth, with an LO power of 9 dBm. The input p1 dB and IP3 are 2 and 15 dBm, respectively. The balanced structure ensures an LO and 2 × LO leakages at the IF port lower than −25 and −35 dBm, respectively. Other spurious remain below −67 dBc. The chip dimensions are 2.4 × 2.4 mm2.

Design of a Ka-Band 4th Sub-Harmonic Image Rejection Mixer

This paper presents the designing and realization of a Ka-band 4th sub-harmonic image rejection mixer using anti-parallel diode pair (APDP). Measured performance is as follow: RF:29.4~31GHz, IF is 100MHz, Conversion loss is11.2~12.3dB and image rejection is larger than 20.2dB with the LO power 11dBm and RF power-30dBm. Both RF-IF isolation and LO-IF isolation are larger than 34.4dB.

A Divide-by-Four Transformer-Coupled Regenerative Frequency Divider With Quadrature Outputs

A divide-by-four transformer-coupled regenerative frequency divider implemented by a TSMC 90 nm CMOS process is presented. A transformer-coupling technique and a source-injected current-mode-logic divider were proposed to increase the injection signal level and widen the operation range of the loop divider. A subharmonic mixer with bottom-switching pairs was used to reduce dc power consumption and optimize the conversion gain. The divider core consumes 6.8 mW at 1.2 V supply voltage. Without using the tuning techniques, the measured locking range is 4.7 GHz (20.9%) from 20.1 to 24.8 GHz. The phase deviation of the quadrature output is less than 0.72 °.

Experimental analysis of different measurement techniques for characterization of millimeter‐wave mixers

ABSTRACTThis article compares for the first time three well‐known procedures for characterizing the noise temperature and conversion loss of a millimeter wave mixer. To carry out this study, a 183 GHz subharmonic mixer has been measured using three common procedures, that is, the “attenuator,” the “gain,” and the “noise injection” procedures. Furthermore, for every measurement procedure, three different detection methods have been used; a broadband power meter, a yttrium iron garnet filter working together with a broadband power meter, and a spectrum analyzer. The “gain procedure” has turned out to be the most stable one in terms of less variation between consecutive values and flatter results along all the frequency range. Results obtained with every detection method are consistent with each other, showing a similar performance of the mixer independent of the detection method used. In addition, the effect of the inclusion or omission of an isolator between mixer and intermediate frequency pre‐amplifier has also been evaluated. For the first time, clear conclusions about its influence are driven. The inclusion of the isolator has culminated in more reliable results, although the measured NT values are increased. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 56:1441–1447, 2014

A 160-GHz system in package for short-range mm-wave applications

This paper proposes a fully integrated 160-GHz transmitter and receiver in package for millimeter-wave applications. The monolithic integrated circuits were designed with a harmonic approach and were fabricated using a SiGe:C HBT production technology with an fTand fmaxof 170 and 250 GHz, respectively. The manufactured 2006 × 1865 µm2bare dies were integrated in 6 × 6 mm2embedded wafer level ball grid array packages, where they were interconnected with highly directional antennas built on the redistribution layer of the packages. With a total frequency multiplication factor of 36 and an active balun at the first stage, the transmitter allows the use of a 4.5-GHz input signal driven from a single-ended signal source [1] and distributed on a standard low-cost printed circuit board. The receiver comprises a Gilbert-cell-based subharmonic mixer with a simulated 1-dB input compression point of −4 dBm, and a minimum double-sideband noise figure of 16.5 dB. The functionality of the proposed system was successfully demonstrated in a quasi-monostatic FMCW radar measurement with a 1-ms up-chirp frequency sweep from 157 to 160 GHz and in a forward-scatter imaging experiment with an 8-GHz frequency ramp from 157 to 165 GHz.

Narrow Linewidth Tunable Terahertz Radiation By Photomixing Without Servo-Locking

A beatnote, tunable from dc to 1 THz, provided by a dual-frequency laser is used to feed an unitravelling carrier photodiode in order to produce a highly coherent THz signal radiated by a transverse-electromagnetic-horn antenna. The THz signal is detected and analyzed by a subharmonic mixer coupled to an electrical spectrum analyzer. All components involved in this experiment operate at room temperature without phase locking the beatnote. So far, the dynamic range evolves from 58 dB at 282 GHz to 15 dB at 1.026 THz, and the measured linewidth is better than 30 kHz. Linewidth narrowing using a Brillouin fiber laser pumped by the dual-frequency laser leads to a beatnote of 500-Hz linewidth at 1 THz.

Analysis and Research Regarding Characteristics of THz Receiver Noise Using Diode Parameter Error

In this paper, an analysis and study regarding the characteristics of THz receiver noise using diode parameter error are performed. For a sub-harmonic mixer designed based on this type of diode model. Finally, this type of mixer was adopted to build a 183 GHz receiver system . The special are study the influence of the diode model process error on the receiver system noise characteristics, based on theory and modeling. The results show that diode ideality factor ns change exerted the greatest influence on the noise factor of the front end of the receiver, as well as similar influence over bias junction capacitance Cj and bulk resistor Rs, and minimal influence over saturation current Is.

Low Power FSK Receiver Using an Oscillator-Based Injection-Locked Frequency Divider

This letter presents a novel frequency-shift keying (FSK) receiver using an oscillator-based injection-locked frequency divider (ILFD), thereby achieving high sensitivity, low dc-offset, and low power consumption. The proposed receiver comprises a low-noise amplifier, a divide-by-2 ring-oscillator-based ILFD, and a subharmonic mixer. Moreover, the proposed receiver is fabricated using 0.18 μm CMOS process and consumes 1.1 mW. Measurement results demonstrate that the proposed receiver has a sensitivity of -83 dBm at 10-3 bit error rate with 1 Mb/s data rate in receiving a 2.4 GHz Gaussian FSK signal.

0.34-THz Wireless Link Based on High-Order Modulation for Future Wireless Local Area Network Applications

This paper presents a 0.34-THz wireless link for future wireless local area networks (WLANs), which is based on high order 16-quadrature amplitude modulation (16QAM). The system adopts super heterodyne transceivers and parallel digital signal-processing techniques. The 0.34-THz transceiver consists of a 0.34-THz subharmonic mixer, a 0.34-THz waveguide H-ladder bandpass filter, and a 0.17-THz multiplier chain. Two 0.34-THz Cassegrain antennas with 48.4-dBi gain have been developed to extend the transmission distance. Based on a 32-way parallel signal processing, we have successfully realized the 3-Gb/s, 16QAM real-time modulator and demodulator. The measured data indicate that the lowest bit error rate of the 0.34-THz, 3-Gb/s data link is 1.784×10 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">-10</sup> over a 50.0-m line-of-sight channel. The maximum received energy per bit to noise power spectral density ratio ( Eb/N0) is 23.8 dB, while the output power of transmitter is -17.5 dBm and the noise temperature of receiver is 5227 K. In addition, this paper presents a 0.34-THz WLAN prototype based on IEEE 802.11b/g protocol. The WLAN prototype, which consists of an access point and two terminal nodes, achieves a transmission data rate of 6.536 Mb/s over 1.15 m by using rectangular horn antennas.

A 1.8-V operation RF CMOS Receiver Front-End for WLAN/MAN

This paper describes a CMOS direct-conversion receiver front-end for 5GHz wireless LAN/MAN. Sub-harmonic mixing is used for down-conversion to minimize the DC-offset due to LO-leakage. The residual DC-offset is cancelled by a digital-to-analog converter at the output of mixer. Band-gap reference generates required bias voltages and currents for each block. Serial-to-parallel interface (SPI) circuit is used to provide the various control signals such as gain-control of low-noise amplifier (LNA). To minimize the DC-offset due to LO selfmixing, sub-harmonic mixing is used for down-conversion. For quadrature down-conversion with sub-harmonic mixing, octa-phase LO signals are generated by octa-phase shifting network. Implemented in a 0.18 m CMOS technology, the receiver dissipates 62mA from a 1.8V supply voltage and has 3.1dB noise figure (NF) and -13dBm input third-order intercept point (iIP3).

Design of Subharmonic Mixers above 100 GHz

This paper presents the design and simulation of several fixed-tuned sub-harmonic mixers cover frequencies from 110 GH to 130 GHz, 215 GH to 235 GHz, 310 GH to 350 GHz, and 400 GH to 440 GHz. Among them, 120 GHz, 225 GHz, 330 GHz subharmonic mixers are designed with flip-chipped planar schottky diode mounted onto a suspended quartz-based substrate, the 225 GHz and 425 GHz subharmonic mixers are GaAs membrane integrated, and the 115 GHz subharmonic mixer has been fabricated and tested already.

Transient Millimeter-Wave Signal Analysis With Unambiguous RF Spectrum Reconstruction

In this paper, a measurement system for the detection of time-dependent effects in broadband spectra of high-power millimeter-wave sources is demonstrated. The heterodyne approach with sub-harmonic mixers enables high dynamic range and configuration flexibility, but typically also imposes severe problems on the analysis of transient or instationary phenomena through frequency ambiguity. A key feature of the presented system is an unambiguous reconstruction of the RF spectrum from the detected IF spectra. This is done by evaluating the upper and lower mixer sidebands of two parallel heterodyne receiver channels simultaneously, resulting in a comparatively high instantaneous measurement bandwidth of 7 GHz per channel pair and a high dynamic range of 50-60 dB in the frequency range 110-170 GHz. Sample measurements obtained during the occurrence of an arc at the dielectric output window of a 140-GHz megawatt-class gyrotron demonstrate the unique capabilities of the system for detecting highly transient and broadband effects in the tube's output spectrum.

다중 대역 레이더 신호 수신을 위한 이중 모드 주파수 혼합기

본 논문은 다중 대역 레이더 수신기의 소형화를 위한 이중 모드 주파수 혼합기를 구현하였다. 제안한 혼합기는 역병렬 다이오드(anti-parallel diode)를 이용하였고, 제어 전압 유무에 따라 기본파 혼합기 또는 부고조파 혼합기로 동작한다. 제어 전압을 인가하여 기본파 혼합기로 동작하는 경우, X-대역에서 -10 dB 변환 손실, 2.0 dBm P1dB 특성을 나타내었고, 제어 전압을 인가하지 않은 부고조파 혼합기로 동작하는 경우 K-대역에서 -10 dB 변환 손실, 2.0 dBm P1dB 특성을 나타내었다. In this paper, we propose a dual-mode mixer to have multi-band radar signal receiver to be compact. The proposed mixer using a anti-parallel diode is operated as a fundamental mixer or sub-harmonic mixer with respect to a control voltage. A fundamental mixer with a control voltage show a conversion loss of -10 dB, 1dB compression point of 2 dBm at X-band. On the other hand, it is performed as a sub-harmonic mixer with a conversion loss of -10 dB, 1 dB compression point of 2 dBm at K-band.

Design of Passive Components in Quadruple Sub-harmonic Image Rejection Mixer

The design of passive components in quadruple Sub-harmonic image rejection mixer is presented in this study. The passive components include double-balun and Lange coupler. With the help of ADS, a Balun with magnitude imbalance degree less than 0.2 dB and phase imbalance degree less than 1° is achieved in the range of 7.9 9.5 GHz. The insertion loss is about 7.3 dB at the center frequency of 8.7 GHz. A Lange coupler with magnitude imbalance degree in the range less than 0.3 dB and phase imbalance degree less than 1° is realized over the 30~40 GHz measurement band. The insertion loss is about 3.25 dB at the center frequency of 35 GHz. Satisfactory results have been reached in the simulation of double-balun and Lange coupler, which makes a significant foundation to the realization of the monolithic quadruple Sub-harmonic image rejection mixer.

1024-QAM High Image Rejection $E$-Band Sub-Harmonic IQ Modulator and Transmitter in 65-nm CMOS Process

An E-band high image-rejection sub-harmonic in-phase/quadrature (IQ) modulator for a high-order quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) signal is designed and implemented on standard 65-nm CMOS technology. To maintain high image-rejection ratio of the IQ modulator over a wide bandwidth for high data-rate application, a load-insensitive analysis and a local oscillator (LO) broadband 45° power splitter are proposed to achieve low amplitude and phase imbalanced structure. In addition, the doubly balanced sub-harmonic Gilbert-cell mixer with the advantages of good LO leakage suppression has been selected in the mixer design. The IQ modulator demonstrates a measured flat conversion gain of 0 ± 1 dB from 55 to 85 GHz. The image rejection ratio is better than 40 dBc from 64 to 84 GHz. For millimeter-wave communication applications, the IQ modulator is integrated with a four-stage power amplifier to form a direct-conversion transmitter. The measured conversion gain of the transmitter is 33 dB and the measured saturated power is 11 dBm. Via high image rejection and good LO suppression of the modulator, a 1024-QAM modulated signal with a data rate of 500 Mb/s and 1.7% error vector magnitude is successfully demonstrated at 65 GHz.

Subharmonic Mixer Based on EBG Technology

We present the design of a submillimeter-wave mixer based on electromagnetic band gap (EBG) technology and using subharmonic local oscillator (LO) injection. The indicated device converts an incoming submilimeter wavelength signal into a 1-5 GHz intermediate frequency (IF) signal by mixing it with a subharmonic LO signal. The mixer consists of a dual-band receiver and two coplanar stripline (CPS) filters, collocated on top of a three-dimensional (3-D) EBG structure. A four-element array of the proposed receivers was designed, fabricated and tested. The configuration demonstrated reasonable performance: conversion loss below 8 dB and noise temperature below 3000 K. The presented concept can be used for higher frequencies, provided the availability of sufficiently powerful LO sources.

A CMOS 77-GHz Receiver Front-End for Automotive Radar

This paper presents the design of a receiver (Rx) front-end for automotive radar application operating at 76-77 GHz. The Rx employs a double conversion architecture, which consists of a five-stage low-noise amplifier (LNA), a sub-harmonic mixer (SHM), and a double-balanced passive mixer (PSM). By adopting this architecture, millimeter-wave frequency synthesizer design can be relaxed. In the LNA layout, the output of each stage is positioned close to the input of the follow stage, thus creating a LC resonance load. As a result, complex interstage matching networks is simplified. The SHM driven by a 38-GHz local oscillator (LO) is adopted to avoid push/pull effect and power consumption of the voltage-controlled oscillator. A PSM is utilized for the second conversion since it consumes no dc current and has low flickering noise. To connect the singled-ended LNA and SHM, a 77-GHz balun is designed; and for driving the SHM, two 38-GHz baluns and an in-phase/quadrature coupler to provide quadrature 38-GHz LO are designed. The proposed Rx is implemented in a 65-nm CMOS technology and measurement results show 16-dB voltage gain and 13-dB calculated noise figure while dissipating 23.5 mA from a black 1.2-V supply.