V‐band GaAs low LO power driven double‐balanced Gilbert mixer based on dual‐meandering baluns design

Abstract

A low local oscillator (LO)‐power, V‐Band MMIC down‐conversion, double‐balanced Gilbert mixer with integrated RF and LO baluns is designed and fabricated using standard 0.15‐µm pHEMT MMIC technology and characterized using probe measurements. There is a high conversion gain at a low‐LO power level. This enables the proposed “current bleeding resistor divider voltage” technique, also provided in the Gilbert‐cell mixer, to boost the conversion gain at a low–LO power level. The greatest conversion gain is from 5.17 to 1.41 dB at an RF frequency 53–60 GHz, and a Pub of −9.5 dBm at an LO input power of −7 dBm. Both RF‐LO and LO‐RF isolations are better than 25 dB. This is believed to be the lowest‐LO power and highest conversion gain so far achieved for V‐band mixers. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 56:60–64, 2014