A 5.25-GHz CMOS folded-cascode even-harmonic mixer for low-voltage applications

• Published in: IEEE transactions on microwave theory and techniques Vol. 54; no. 2; pp. 660 - 669
• Main Authors: Ming-Feng Huang, Kuo, C.J., Shuenn-Yuh Lee
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY IEEE 01.02.2006; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Circuit noise; Circuit properties; Circuit synthesis; Current reuse; Design optimization; Design. Technologies. Operation analysis. Testing; Electric, optical and optoelectronic circuits; Electronic circuits; Electronic equipment and fabrication. Passive components, printed wiring boards, connectics; Electronics; even-harmonic mixer (EHM); Exact sciences and technology; folded cascode; Integrated circuits; Linearity; Local oscillators; low power; Oscillators, resonators, synthetizers; Performance gain; Power measurement; Radio frequency; RF signals; Semiconductor electronics. Microelectronics. Optoelectronics. Solid state devices; Signal convertors; Voltage-controlled oscillators; Performance evaluation; Harmonic; folded cascode; Second order; Current reuse; Circuit design; Frequency doubler; Third order; Mixer; Reuse; Theoretical study; Power supply; Cascode connection; Low voltage; Local oscillator; Power consumption; Complementary MOS technology; Linearity; even-harmonic mixer (EHM); Intermediate frequency; low power; Low-power electronics; Gain
• DOI: 10.1109/TMTT.2005.862665
• ISSN: 0018-9480

This paper presents a 5.25-GHz folded-cascode even-harmonic mixer (FEHM) for low-voltage applications. This FEHM employs the folded technique to reduce the headroom voltage, a current reuse circuit in the RF stage to improve its linearity, and the frequency-doubling technique in the local oscillator (LO) stage to produce an LO double-frequency signal. In addition, the proposed technique exhibits the advantage of high conversion gain. In order to demonstrate the benefits and optimize the circuit design, the theoretical studies of conversion gain, linearity, and noise performance are described. For measurement, the proposed FEHM possesses conversion gain of 8.3 dB, third-order input intercept point (IIP/sub 3/) of 0.03 dBm, and second-order input intercept point (IIP/sub 2/) of 31.2 dBm under the supply voltage of 0.9 V and LO power of 5.5 dBm. The power consumption of the proposed mixer is about 4.95 mW at an IF frequency of 500 kHz.