This paper proposes a microwatt source-driven down-conversion mixer with broadband asymmetrical broadside-coupled baluns in a 90-nm CMOS low-power process. The forward body biased (FBB) technique reduces the threshold voltage (VTH) and supply voltage for operation in the near weak inversion region in millimeter-wave mixer designs. To effectively reduce the size of the chip, an asymmetrical broadside-coupled balun is developed with a bandwidth of 103 GHz (from 34 to 137 GHz) with a low insertion loss of 3.66 dB (3 dB for an ideal balun) at 58 GHz. The chip area of the balun is 0.016 mm2. The proposed FBB mixer has a 4.2-dB peak conversion gain and a 14.3-dBm input third-order intercept point at 55 GHz under a 2-dBm local-oscillator power. The dc power of the FBB mixer core is only 139 W, while it draws a 278-μA dc current from a 0.5-V supply. The fabricated FBB mixer, comprising two asymmetrical broadside-coupled baluns, and all of test pads and dummy blocks, occupies an area of 0.72 mm2. An FoMMixer1 that is obtained using the ultra-low power consumption FBB mixer is as high as 23.4.

An Ultra-Low Power $V$ -Band Source-Driven Down-Conversion Mixer With Low-Loss and Broadband Asymmetrical Broadside-Coupled Balun in 90-nm CMOS Technology

A low-power W-band gain-enhanced CMOS down-conversion mixer for millimeter-wave-to-baseband pulsed-radar receiver is presented. To enhance the equivalent load impedance while keeping the transconductance ( $\text{g}_{\mathrm {m}}$ ) of the RF $\text{g}_{\mathrm {m}}$ stage unchanged and achieving prominent IF bandwidth, we propose a novel core IF load, which is based on the parallel combination of the cross-coupled PMOS transistors (CCPT) and the series RL circuit (i.e., CCPT-RL-based core IF load). The down-conversion mixer comprises a double-balanced Gilbert-cell-based mixer core with an inductive-peaking current-bleeding RF $\text{g}_{\mathrm {m}}$ stage and a CCPT-RL-based core IF load, two elliptic baluns, and a source follower buffer. Compared with the traditional down-conversion mixer for direct conversion receiver, conversion gain (CG), and noise figure (NF) can be significantly enhanced. For 88~100 GHz, the mixer consumes 5 mW and achieves excellent RF-port input reflection coefficient ( ${S}_{11}$ ) of −9.6~−19.1 dB and LO-port input reflection coefficient ( ${S}_{22}$ ) of −5.5~−21.9 dB. In addition, the mixer achieves excellent CG of 11.8~14.6 dB, NF of 14.2~15.2 dB, and LO-RF isolation of 34.6~35.3 dB–one of the best CG, NF, and LO-RF isolation results ever reported for a W-band down-conversion mixer.

Design and Analysis of a 94-GHz CMOS Down-Conversion Mixer With CCPT-RL-Based IF Load

A W-band double-balanced down-conversion mixer for automotive radars using standard 90 nm CMOS technology is reported. The mixer comprises a double-balanced Gilbert cell with inductive source-degeneration RF transconductance stage for RF-port input matching bandwidth and conversion gain (CG) enhancement, a Marchand balun for converting the single RF input signal to differential signal, a Marchand balun for converting the single LO input signal to differential signal, and a baseband amplifier. The mixer consumes 13 mW and achieves excellent RF-port input reflection coefficient of −13.1∼ −19.4 dB and LO-port input reflection coefficient of −9.1∼ −11.8 dB for frequencies of 75∼85 GHz. In addition, for frequencies of 75∼85 GHz, the mixer achieves CG of −1∼1.5 dB, LO-RF isolation of 43.5∼49.2 dB, LO-IF isolation of 56.5∼64.5 dB and RF-IF isolation of 35.9∼39.4 dB, one of the best CG and port-to-port isolation results ever reported for a CMOS down-conversion mixer with operation frequency around 80 GHz.

A W-band down-conversion mixer in 90 nm CMOS with excellent matching and port-to-port isolation for automotive radars

This article proposes a comprehensive study for designing an antenna for ultra wide band (UWB) communications. The techniques involved for designing an antenna, the need for its use and effects of those techniques on the UWB performance of the proposed antenna are investigated to develop an intuition and to gain an insight into the antenna design. The work studies the design methodologies and constitutes a design procedure. This way of studying the design methodologies for designing an UWB antenna is proposed as a novel approach in this article, as it gives a clear insight into the UWB antenna design. Various aspects of the UWB characteristics of the proposed antenna are shown as comparison with an analogous classic design to view the improvement in each and every aspect of the essential parameters of the UWB. The presented results show that an overall improvement in the UWB performance is achieved. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 57:80–84, 2015

Study of the design evolution of an antenna and its performance for UWB communications

An 80 GHz double-balanced down-conversion mixer for automotive radars using standard 90 nm complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology is reported. The mixer comprises a double-balanced Gilbert cell with inductive source-degeneration radio-frequency (RF) transconductance stage for wideband RF-port input impedance matching and conversion gain (CG) enhancement, a Marchand balun for converting the single RF input signal to differential signal, a Marchand balun for converting the single local oscillator (LO) input signal to differential signal and a baseband amplifier. The mixer consumes 13 mW and achieves excellent RF-port input reflection coefficient of −13.1 ∼ −19.4 dB and LO-port input reflection coefficient of −9.1 ∼ −11.8 dB for frequencies in the range 75–85 GHz. In addition, for frequencies of 75–85 GHz, the mixer achieves CG of −1 ∼1.5 dB, LO–RF isolation of 43.5–49.2 dB and LO–intermediate frequency (IF) isolation of 56.5–64.5 dB, one of the best CG and port-to-port isolation results ever reported for a CMOS down-conversion mixer with operation frequency about 80 GHz.

13 mW 80 GHz down-conversion mixer with 1.5 dB gain and 49.2 dB LO-RF isolation

Presented is a monolithic W-band (75-110 GHz) down-conversion mixer consisting of a double-balanced core, Marchand-type on-chip baluns at inputs, and a two-stage output buffer, fabricated in a 200 GHz f T SiGe technology. Including the loss for input baluns, this mixer exhibits conversion gains of 14.4 plusmn 2.8 dB and single sideband (SSB) noise figures of less than 19.5 dB across the entire W-band, drawing 28 mA from a 3.3 V supply.

W-band double-balanced down-conversion mixer with Marchand baluns in silicon-germanium technology

A W-band receiver front-end, including a low-noise amplifier (LNA), a coupled-wire Marchand balun and a double-balanced mixer, has been designed and fabricated in IBMpsilas 8 HP 0.12 mum, 200 GHz-fT SiGe technology. The circuit operates in the 87-94 GHz frequency range with a peak conversion gain of 36.3 dB and a minimum single side-band (SSB) noise figure of 10 dB. At 91 GHz the measured 1 dB input compression point is -36 dBm. The entire circuit occupies 1.82 mm2 including bond pads and dissipates only 109.7 mW. To the authorspsila knowledge this front-end achieves the highest conversion gain among published receiver front-ends in silicon-based technology operating beyond 90 GHz.

J. Alvarado

Papers

W-band double-balanced down-conversion mixer with Marchand baluns in silicon-germanium technology

A 91 GHz receiver front-end in silicon-germanium technology