A Miniature 38-48 GHz MMIC Sub-Harmonic Transmitter With Post-Distortion Linearization

Abstract

This paper presents a miniature 38-48 GHz subharmonic transmitter with post-distortion linearization using a 0.15-gm GaAs HEMT process. The transmitter, which integrates a sub-harmonic mixer, a band-pass driver amplifier, and a linearizer, has a compact chip size of 2.5 mm2 with conversion gain of 7 ± 1.5 dB from 38 to 48 GHz. With the features of the sub-harmonic mixer and band-pass driver amplifier, the 2fLo leakage rejection of the transmitter is 47 dB. For the linearity of the transmitter, a post-distortion linearizer is added. After linearization, the output spectrum re-growth can be suppressed by 8 dB at 40 GHz. To keep ACPR below -35 dBc, the output power has been increased from -2 to 1 dBm, which means the linear output power has been doubled after linearization.

The Design and Process Reliability Analysis of Millimeter Wave CMOS Power Amplifier with a Cold Mode MOSFET Linearization

“…A linearizer technique of cold-mode MOSFET [14][15][16][17][18][19][20] is implemented in the design. It not only improves the linearity of the design but also improves the gain at higher frequency bands.…”

“…Hence analog predistortion [14][15][16], which can be divided as active and passive, are seen as a better alternative. Passive analog predistortion is less complex compared to its active counterpart and does not obviously add any gain, however it does improve the linearity, and is considered as a better option for high-frequency applications [17][18][19][20][21].…”

A self‐oscillating mixer with double‐conversion structure for 77 GHz applications

“…Our mixer exhibits a conversion gain of 3.87 dB using only two active devices. The sub‐harmonic mixer in achieved conversion gain with the addition of driving amplifiers in the circuit, while the sub‐harmonic balanced mixer in achieved small conversion gain using four active devices. The rest of the sub‐harmonic mixers showed large conversion loss.…”