A 1.2 V 15–32 GHz low-power single-balanced gate mixer with a miniature rat-race hybrid

Abstract

A 15–32 GHz miniature single-balanced gate mixer is proposed and analyzed. It achieves a smaller chip area with acceptable conversion gain and port-to-port isolation. In addition, the design procedure is described in detail. This mixer, fabricated in 90 nm digital CMOS technology, demonstrates a measured conversion loss of 1 dB and higher than 30 dB RF-to-LO port isolation from 17 to 32 GHz, at a local oscillator (LO) driver power of −4.3 dBm. The total dc power consumption is only 6 mW from a 1.2 V supply, including output buffer. The low dc power consumption and LO driver power reduce the power budget, and the proposed miniature rat-race hybrid facilitates integration in a receiver.