Design and fabrication of 94 GHz MMIC single balanced resistive mixer without IF balun

• Published in: Microelectronics Vol. 41; no. 10; pp. 627 - 631
• Main Authors: Lee, Sang-Jin, Baek, Yong-Hyun, Baek, Tae-Jong, Han, Min, Choi, Seok-Gyu, Ko, Dong-Sik, Jeon, Byoung-Chul, Rhee, Jin-Koo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01.10.2010
• Subjects: Balancing; Baluns; Gallium arsenide; High electron mobility transistors; Intermediate frequency; Mixers; Noise levels; Semiconductor devices
• ISSN: 1879-2391; 0026-2692
• DOI: 10.1016/j.mejo.2010.06.012

In this paper, a 94 GHz microwave monolithic integrated circuit (MMIC) single balanced resistive mixer affording high LO-to-RF isolation was designed without an IF balun. The single balanced resistive mixer, which does not require an external IF balun, was designed using a 0.1 km InGaAs/InAlAs/GaAs metamorphic high electron mobility transistor (HEMT). The designed MMIC single balanced resistive mixer was fabricated using the 0.1 km MHEMT MMIC process. From the measurement, conversion loss of the single balanced resistive mixer was 14.7 dB at an LO power of 10 dBm. The P sub(1 dB) (1 dB compression point) values of the input and output were 10 dBm and -5.3 dBm, respectively. The LO-to-RF isolation of the single balanced resistive mixer was -35.2 dB at 94.03 GHz. The single balanced resistive mixer in this work provided high LO-to-RF isolation without an IF balun.