Measurement Procedure Compares Gilbert Micromixers

Oct. 15, 2008

To determine a Gilbert mixer's frequency response for each local oscillator (LO), RF, and intermediatefrequency (IF) stage, a measurement approach has been proposed by Jin-Siang Syu, Chinchun Meng, and Chih-Kai Wu from Taiwan's National Chiao Tung University. Guo-Wei Huang from National Nano Device Laboratories also took part in this work. The researchers demonstrated wideband downconversion mixers using a 0.35-m silicongermanium (SiGe) heterojunction-bipolar-transistor (HBT) and a 2-m gallium-indium-phosphide (GaInP)/gallium-arsenide (GaAs) HBT.

The SiGe HBT micromixer achieved conversion gain of 6 dB, IP₁ dB of 17.5 dBm, and an input third-order intercept point of 7 dBm with a 3.3-V supply voltage and power consumption of 37.5 mW. In contrast, the GaInP/GaAs micromixer achieved conversion gain of 25 dB, IP₁ dB of 25 dBm, and a third-order intercept point of 15 dBm with the 5-V supply voltage and 50 mW of power consumption. See "Comparison of Wideband Gilbert Micromixers Using SiGe HBT and GaInP/ GaAs HBT Technologies," Microwave And Optical Technology Letters, September 2008, p. 2254.

About the Author

Nancy Friedrich | Editor-in-Chief

Nancy Friedrich began her career in technical publishing in 1998. After a stint with sister publication Electronic Design as Chief Copy Editor, Nancy worked as Managing Editor of Embedded Systems Development. She then became a Technology Editor at Wireless Systems Design, an offshoot of Microwaves & RF. Nancy has called the microwave space “home” since 2005.