A double balanced 3-18 GHz resistive HEMT monolithic mixer

Abstract

A double-balanced (DB) 3-18-GHz resistive high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) monolithic mixer has been developed. This mixer consisted of a AlGaAs-InGaAs HEMT quad, an active local oscillator (LO) balun, and two passive baluns, RF and IF. At 16-dBm LO power, this mixer achieved conversion losses of 7.5-9.0 dB for 4-14 GHz RF and 7.5-11.0 dB for 3-18 GHz RF. The simulated conversion loss was in agreement with the measurement results. A third-order input intercept of +26 dBm was achieved for a 10-11 GHz RF and 1 GHz IF at a LO drive of 16 dBm. This design is for a DB resistive HEMT MMIC mixer covering up to 6:1 bandwidth.<>