Design of a 35–95 GHz fundamental monolithic mixer based on a novel IF extraction structure

Abstract

The letter presents a high-performance doubly balanced ring mixer (DBRM) fabricated by a 0.1 µm GaAs pHEMT process that achieves ultrawide radio-frequency (RF) and intermediate frequency (IF) bandwidths. A multiple-coupled-line Marchand balun is optimized to extend the RF bandwidth. A novel structure is designed to directly extract the IF current from the RF balun without an additional IF coupler. Due to the proposed IF extraction structure, the IF bandwidth is broadened with decreased complexity. The size of the whole chip including the probe GSG pads is 0.95×0.65 mm 2 . The measured results show that the conversion loss is 7.2-11.9 dB for the RF frequency range of 35-95 GHz with an LO power level of 14 dBm and a fixed IF frequency of 1 GHz. In addition, the conversion loss is better than 12 dB for the IF frequency range from DC to 30 GHz under a fixed LO frequency. key words: ultrawide bandwidth, doubly balanced ring mixer (DBRM), Marchand balun, monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) Classification: Microwave and millimeter-wave devices, circuits, and modules

A wideband InP Gilbert-cell mixer using capacitive degeneration and current bleeding technique

“…Several enhancement techniques have been employed to extend the bandwidth of mixers. The designed Marchand baluns were used as input matching networks to achieve a wider operating bandwidth [18,19,20,21]. But they are not suitable for system level design.…”

Design of a full V‐band fundamental mixer with an ultra‐wide IF from 0.01 to 22 GHz

“…Introduction: Down conversion mixers with wide radio frequency (RF) and intermediate frequency (IF) bandwidths are core building blocks in broadband millimetre-wave (MMW) systems, such as radio astronomical receivers, complex electromagnetic environment monitors and test equipments [1]. Wide IF bandwidth is not only essential to high data rate communication systems, but also to higher sensitivity for the sophisticated astronomical receivers [2].…”

“…Wide RF bandwidth contributes to simplifying the receiver systems and reducing the cost. To date, a large amount of prior works in this area have been reported in [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8], the majority of which are based on MMICs [1][2][3][4][5] and others are diode based HMIC mixers [6][7][8]. Although most of the mixer MMICs feature wider RF and IF bandwidths compared to the reported diode based HMIC mixers, they suffer from high cost and long period of time to develop a specific product.…”