Noise figure characterization of a subharmonic graphene FET mixer

Abstract

We report on the first room temperature noise figure measurement of a graphene FET subharmonic resistive mixer in the interval fRF = 2-5 GHz. Due to an 8 nm thin Al2O3 gate dielectric it can operate with a conversion loss in the range 20–22 dB at only 0 dBm of local oscillator power. The measurement yields a noise figure close to the conversion loss, thus determining the noise to be thermal in origin, which is promising for cryogenic applications. The general route to lower noise figure is an improvement of the conversion loss.