High-isolation photonic microwave mixer/link for wideband signal processing and transmission

We have proposed, analyzed, and demonstrated a high-isolation photonic microwave mixer using an integrated, dual-stage balanced-bridge Mach-Zehnder modulator. The proposed balanced photonic microwave mixer provides not only high isolation between radio frequency (RF) signal and local oscillator (LO) ports, but also excellent isolation between intermediate frequency (IF) and RF/LO ports without any filters. In this paper, the structure, principle, and operation settings are discussed in detail. Experimental results showed >60 dB electrical isolation between RF and LO ports and >50 dB isolation between IF and RF/LO ports in a demonstrative photonic microwave mixer. This device can extend the bandwidth of a modulator and have wide applications in RF photonic links where RF signal conversion and processing are required.     

10-GHz Highly Symmetrical Sub-Harmonic Gilbert Mixer Using GaInP/GaAs HBT Technology

A 10-GHz sub-harmonic Gilbert mixer is demonstrated using GaInP/GaAs hetero-junction bipolar transistor technology. The local oscillator (LO) signal time-delay path in the sub-harmonic LO stage is compensated using the fully symmetrical stacked-LO doubler; therefore, the balance of the sub-harmonic LO stage, the radio frequency to intermediate frequency isolation, and IIP₂ are improved. The demonstrated 10-GHz sub-harmonic mixer achieves 10 dB conversion gain, IP_1dB of -12 dBm, IIP₃ of 2 dBm and IIP₂ of 33 dBm     

Ku频段多通道抗振激励源设计

介绍一种Ku频段多通道抗振激励源设计,采用X频段抗振低相噪介质稳频振荡器(DRO),通过结构固连减少各部分电路在振动环境中的相对运动,保证了激励源在振动条件下的稳定性.采用二次谐波镜频抑制混频器一次变频,简化了激励源电路并实现了对本振泄漏的高抑制度和良好的边带抑制.多芯片微带混合集成设计实现了激励源的小型化.研制的样机达到了振动环境下相噪优于-97 dBc/Hz@10kHz,本振抑制大于32 dB、边带抑制大于35 dB的优良性能,验证了设计技术的有效性.     

A 26-GHz Band Integrated Circuit of a Double-Balanced Mixer and Circulators

Integration of a double-balanced mixer and ferrite-disk type circulators have been successfully achieved in the 26-GHz band. The total single-sideband noise figure of the integrated circuit, composed of a mixer and two circulators, is 8.5 dB, including the noise contribution from an IF amplifier. The double-balanced mixer is composed of microstrip lines, slot lines, coupled slot lines, coplanar lines, Au wires, and four beam lead Schottky-barrier diodes. The minimum conversion loss of the mixer is 5.3 dB at a signal frequency of 25.4 GHz. Isolation between RF and LO ports is greater than 30 dB. The ferrite-disk type circulator is produced by a newly developed precise machining technique. The minimum insertion loss of the circulator is 0.45 dB, and the isolation is greater than 20 dB. The integrated circuit with the ferrite-disk type circulators will be extended to the millimeter-wave band.     

A high-performance W-band uniplanar subharmonic mixer

A uniplanar subharmonic mixer has been implemented in coplanar waveguide (CPW) technology. The circuit is designed to operate at RF frequencies of 92-96 GHz, IF frequencies of 2-4 GHz, and LO frequencies of 45-46 GHz. Total circuit size excluding probe pads and transitions is less than 0.8 mm ×1.5 mm. The measured minimum single-sideband (SSB) conversion loss is 7.0 dB at an RF of 94 GHz, and represents state-of-the-art performance for a planar W-band subharmonic mixer. The mixer is broad-band with a SSB conversion loss of less than 10 dB over the 83-97-GHz measurement band. The measured LO-RF isolation is better than -40 dB for LO frequencies of 45-46 GHz. The double-sideband (DSB) noise temperature measured using the Y-factor method is 725 K at an LO frequency of 45.5 GHz and an IF frequency of 1.4 GHz. The measured data agrees well with the predicted performance using harmonic-balance analysis (HBA). Potential applications are millimeter-wave receivers for smart munition seekers and automotive-collision-avoidance radars     

A low-noise fixed-tuned 300-360-GHz sub-harmonic mixer using planar Schottky diodes

This letter presents the design and fabrication of a low-noise fixed-tuned 300-360-GHz sub-harmonic mixer, featuring an anti-parallel pair of planar Schottky diodes fabricated by the University of Virginia and flip-chipped onto a suspended quartz-based microstrip circuit. The mixer exhibits a double side band (DSB) equivalent noise temperature lower than 900K over 18% of bandwidth (300-360-GHz), with 2 to 4.5mW of local oscillator (LO) power. At room temperature, a minimum DSB mixer noise temperature of 700K and conversion losses of 6.3dB are measured at 330GHz.     

20-GHz 5-dB-gain analog multipliers with AlGaAs/GaAs HBTs

From-DC-to-above-20-GHz monolithic Gilbert cell analog multipliers have been developed using AlGaAs/GaAs HBT technology. As a double balanced active mixer, it exhibits very high conversion gain of above +5 dB with extremely high LO-IF isolation of 33 dB for RF/LO inputs up to 20 GHz. It exhibits conversion gain of +9 dB for 5 GHz RF/LO inputs. As a double balanced upconverter, it exhibits positive conversion gain with high LO-RF isolation of 23 dB for RF output up to 8.5 GHz. As a detection mixer in coherent optical heterodyne receivers, it can operate for RF/LO inputs up to 15 GHz under a less than -7.5 dBm LO input condition     

A highly integrated wideband millimeter-wave MMIC converter using0.25-μm P-HEMT technology

A highly integrated wideband converter that was designed to upconvert the entire 6- to 18-GHz input RF frequency band to a 22-GHz intermediate frequency using a 28- to 40-GHz local oscillator (LO) is described. The circuit was designed using 0.25-μm pseudomorphic HEMT technology. The converter incorporates a three-stage RF amplifier, a three-stage LO amplifier, and an active balanced mixer, all integrated on a chip 96 mil×96 mil in size. The upconverter monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) has an average of 10-dB conversion gain across the full 6-18-GHz input band     

A Low-Voltage 5-GHz Downconversion Mixer Employing A Second Harmonic Injection Linearization Technique

In this paper, a low-voltage CMOS mixer topology, appropriate for operation in the 5-GHz frequency band, is presented. The mixer combines several design techniques in order to achieve high linearity performance with minimum current consumption in a restricted 1-V supply. The proposed mixer utilizes an integrated transformer to improve the high frequency performance and to achieve large LO to RF isolation. In addition, a novel linearization technique based on second harmonic injection, is introduced to optimize linearity performance. The design is being implemented in a 0.13-mum CMOS technology.     

Ka-Band Monolithic GaAs Balanced Mixers

Monolithic integrated circuits have been developed on semi-insulating GaAs substrates for millimeter-wave balanced mixers. The GaAs chip is used as a suspended stripline in a cross-bar mixer circuit. A double sideband noise figure of 4.5 dB has been achieved with a monolithic GaAs balanced mixer filter chip over a 30- to 32-GHz frequency range. A monolithic GaAs balanced mixer chip has also been optimized and combined with a hybrid MIC IF preamplifier in a planar package with significant improvement in RF bandwidth and reduction in chip size. A double sideband noise figure of less than 6 dB has been achieved over a 31- to 39-GHz frequency range with a GaAs chip size of only 0.5x0.43 in. This includes the contribution of a 1.5-dB noise figure due to if preamplifier (5-500 MHz).     

X波段低变频损耗混频器设计

采用商用肖特基势垒二极管HSMS-2822,研制了低变频损耗、高隔离度X波段单平衡混频器。为实现所需要的混频带宽,本振信号和射频信号采用三分支定向耦合器耦合输入,仿真研究表明其能有效地改善工作频率带宽,提高本振端口与射频端口间的隔离度。通过设计合理的空闲频率回收电路,回收利用空闲频率能量,能有效地降低混频器变频损耗,提高本振信号、射频信号及空闲频率信号到中频端口的隔离度。在10.6GHz,测得最小变频损耗5.67dB;在10～11.5GHz,混频器变频损耗为6.4±0.7dB,变频损耗平坦度好,RF-IF隔离度优于27dB,LO-IF隔离度高于24dB,LO-RF隔离度优于14dB。     

Ka-band monolithic GaAs balanced mixers

Monolithic integrated circuits have been developed on semi-insulating GaAs substrates for millimeter-wave balanced mixers. The GaAs chip is used as a suspended stripline in a cross-bar mixer circuit. A double sideband noise figure of 4.5 dB has been achieved with a monolithic GaAs balanced mixer filter chip over a 30- to 32-GHz frequency range. A monolithic GaAs balanced mixer chip has also been optimized and combined with a hybrid MIC IF preamplifier in a planar package with significant improvement in RF bandwidth and reduction in chip size. A double sideband noise figure of less than 6 dB has been achieved over a 31- to 39-GHz frequency range with a GaAs chip size of only 0.5 × 0.43 in. This includes the contribution of a 1.5-dB noise figure due to IF preamplifier (5-500 MHz).     

新型四次谐波混频电路

本文介绍了一种适用于高次谐波混频的电路原理图,基于空闲频率相位抵消理论,该混频电路结构可以避免复杂的空闲频率回收电路设计,同时能获得很高的端口隔离度。基于该结构,设计了新型的Ka波段四次谐波混频器,该混频器在38.4 GHz测得最小变频损耗 8.3 dB,在34-39 GHz 变频损耗小于10.3dB, LO-IF、RF-LO、 RF-IF 端口隔离度分别优于30.7 dB、 22.9dB、46.5dB。     

A subharmonic self-oscillating mixer with integrated antenna for60-GHz wireless applications

A balanced integrated-antenna self-oscillating mixer at 60 GHz is presented in this paper. The modal radiation characteristics of a dual-feed planar quasi-Yagi antenna are used to achieve RF-local oscillator (RF-LO) isolation between closely spaced frequencies. The balanced mixer is symmetric, inherently broad band, and does not need an RF balun. Pseudomorphic high electron-mobility transistors are used in a 30-GHz push-pull circuit to generate the second harmonic and a 30-GHz dielectric resonator was used to stabilize the fundamental oscillation frequency. This allows the possibility of building a balanced low-cost self-contained antenna integrated receiver with low LO leakage for short-range narrow-band communication. Phase locking can be done with half of the RF frequency. The circuit exhibits a conversion loss less than 15 dB from 60 to 61.5 GHz, radiation leakage of -26 dBm at 60 GHz, and IF phase noise of -95 dBc/Hz at 100-kHz offset     

Compact 28-GHz subharmonically pumped resistive mixer MMIC using a lumped-element high-pass/band-pass balun

This work reports a novel lump-element balun for use in a miniature monolithic subharmonically pumped resistive mixer (SPRM) microwave monolithic integrated circuit. The proposed balun is simply analogous to the traditional Marchand balun. The coupled transmission lines are replaced by lump elements, significantly reducing the size of the balun. This balun requires no complicated three-dimensional electromagnetic simulations, multilayers or suspended substrate techniques; therefore, the design parameters are easily calculated. A 2.4-GHz balun is demonstrated using printed circuit board technology. The measurements show that the outputs of balun with high-pass and band-pass responses, a 1-dB gain balance, and a 5/spl deg/ phase balance from 1.7 to 2.45 GHz. The balun was then applied in the design of a 28-GHz monolithic SPRM. The measured conversion loss of the mixer was less than 11dB at a radio frequency (RF) bandwidth of 27.5-28.5 GHz at a fixed 1 GHz IF, a local oscillator (LO)-RF isolation of over 35 dB, and a 1-dB compression point higher than 9 dBm. The chip area of the mixer is less than 2.0 mm/sup 2/.     

Design of Lange-couplers and single-sideband mixers usingmicromachining techniques

This paper reports on the design and performance of micromachined Lange-couplers and single-sideband mixers (SSB) on thin dielectric membranes at Ku-band. The micromachined Lange-coupler results in a 3.6±0.8 dB coupling bandwidth from 6.5 to 20 GHz. The Lange-coupler and an interdigital filter are used in a 17-GHz SSB. The SSB mixer requires 1-2 mW of local oscillator (LO) power without dc bias and achieves a 30 dB upper-sideband (USB) image rejection for an IF frequency of 1 GHz and above. The micromachined membrane technology can be easily scaled to millimeter-wave monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMIC's) to meet the low-cost requirements in automotive or portable communication systems     

A W-band subharmonically pumped monolithic GaAs-based HEMT gate mixer

A W-band high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) subharmonically pumped (SHP) gate mixer is designed with fixed LO frequency operation. it is fabricated on a 4-mil substrate using 0.15-/spl mu/m GaAs pHEMT monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) process. the on-wafer measurement results show that the best conversion loss is about 4.7 dB in the W-band, as a 11-dbm 42-GHz low observable (LO) signal is pumped. To our knowledge, this is the first result on low conversion-loss W-band MMIC SHP HEMT gate mixer.     

60-GHz monolithic down- and up-converters utilizing asource-injection concept

This paper deals with the design considerations, fabrication process, and performance of coplanar waveguide (CPW) heterojunction FET (HJFET) down- and up-converter monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMIC's) for V-band wireless system applications. To realize a mixer featuring a simple structure with inherently isolated ports, and yet permitting independent port matching and low local oscillator (LO) power operation, a “source-injection” concept is utilized by treating the HJFET as a three-port device in which the LO signal is injected through the source terminal, the RF (or IF) signal through the gate terminal, and the IF (or RF) signal is extracted from the drain terminal. The down-converter chip incorporates an image-rejection filter and a source-injection mixer. The up-converter chip incorporates a source-injection mixer and an output RF filter. With an LO power and frequency of 7 dBm and 60.4 GHz, both converters can operate at any IF frequency within 0.5-2 GHz, with a corresponding conversion gain within -7 to -12 dB, primarily dominated by the related filter's insertion loss. Chip size is 3.3 mm×2 mm for the down-converter, and 3.5 mm×1.8 mm for the up-converter     

Low-noise Ku-band MMIC balanced P-HEMT upconverter

An enhanced design methodology for a low-noise Ku-band monolithic balanced high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) upconverter and its performance are presented in this paper. The mixer topology consists of a common source/common gate HEMT pair that performs the mixing and balun functions. A detailed study has been done to establish the role of the transistor model elements in the performance of the mixer. Based on this study, a new analysis is proposed to optimize the operating point of the mixer in order to get a tradeoff between conversion gain and port isolations. To combine the LO and intermediate-frequency (IF) signals, active circuits were used, as well as a high-pass filter in order to improve the isolations. The circuit size, including the filter and the combiners, is 3 mm². On-wafer measurements show a conversion gain over 2.5 dB, with only 3 dBm of LO power. A LO/RF isolation over 27 dB was measured in the whole LO band. The LO/IF isolation is over 27 dB thanks to the low reverse gain of the combiner HEMT's. A single sideband noise figure of 7.3 dB has been obtained     

Beam scan using the quasi-optical antenna mixer array

The quasi-optical antenna mixer system transforms an RF signal into an intermediate frequency signal just after it spatially receives the RF signal and the local oscillator's (LO) signal. In this paper, we present a novel beam scanning system using the quasi-optical antenna mixer array and describe its principle of operation and the experimental results in the microwave band. The arrival direction of RF signals can be controlled by adjusting the LO incident angle and/or the LO frequency without implementing RF circuits such as phase shifters. Therefore, the novel beam-scanning system has no loss due to RF circuits and can be easily designed because of its simple composition