• ETRI Journal
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.569-578
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• 2005

The purpose of this paper is to describe the implementation of monolithically matching circuits, interface circuits, and RF core circuits to the same substrate. We designed and fabricated on-chip 1 to 6 GHz up-conversion and 1 to 8 GHz down-conversion mixers using a 0.8 mm SiGe hetero-junction bipolar transistor (HBT) process technology. To fabricate a SiGe HBT, we used a reduced pressure chemical vapor deposition (RPCVD) system to grow a base epitaxial layer, and we adopted local oxidation of silicon (LOCOS) isolation to separate the device terminals. An up-conversion mixer was implemented on-chip using an intermediate frequency (IF) matching circuit, local oscillator (LO)/radio frequency (RF) wideband matching circuits, LO/IF input balun circuits, and an RF output balun circuit. The measured results of the fabricated up-conversion mixer show a positive power conversion gain from 1 to 6 GHz and a bandwidth of about 4.5 GHz. Also, the down-conversion mixer was implemented on-chip using LO/RF wideband matching circuits, LO/RF input balun circuits, and an IF output balun circuit. The measured results of the fabricated down-conversion mixer show a positive power conversion gain from 1 to 8 GHz and a bandwidth of about 4.5 GHz.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea TC
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• v.41 no.12
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• pp.103-108
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• 2004

In this paper, we present MIMIC(Millimeter-wave Monolithic Integrated Circuit) up-mixer with low conversion loss and low LO power for the V-band transmitter applications. The up-mixer was successfully integrated by using 0.1 ㎛ GaAs pseudomorphic HEMTs(PHEMTs) and coplanar waveguide (CPW) structures. The circuit is designed to operate at RF frequencies of 60.4 GHz, IF frequencies of 2.4 GHz, and LO frequencies of 58 GHz. The fabricated MIMIC up-mixer size is 2.3 mmxl.6 mm. The measured results show that the low conversion loss of 1.25 dB when input signal is -10.25 dBm at LO power of 5.4 dBm. The LO to RF isolation is 13.2 dB at 58 GHz. The fabricated V-band up-mixer represents lower LO input power and conversion loss characteristics than previous reported millimeter-wave up-mixers.

• Journal of electromagnetic engineering and science
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.91-95
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• 2008

This paper presents a direct-conversion I/Q up-mixer block, which supports $3{\sim}5$ GHz ultra-wideband(UWB) applications. It consists of a VI converter, a double-balanced mixer, a RF amplifier, and a differential-to-single signal converter. To achieve wideband characteristics over $3{\sim}5$ GHz frequency range, the double-balanced mixer adopts a shunt-peaking load. The proposed RF amplifier can suppress unwanted common-mode input signals with high linearity. The proposed direct-conversion I/Q up-mixer block is implemented using $0.18-{\mu}m$ CMOS technology. The measured results for three channels show a power gain of $-2{\sim}-9$ dB with a gain flatness of 1dB, a maximum output power level of $-7{\sim}-14.5$ dBm, and a output return loss of more than - 8.8 dB. The current consumption of the fabricated chip is 25.2 mA from a 1.8 V power supply.

• KIEE International Transactions on Electrophysics and Applications
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• v.4C no.6
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• pp.272-275
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• 2004

A balanced single side-band (SSB) mixer employing a sub-harmonic configuration is designed for up and down conversions in K-band. The designed mixer uses anti-parallel diode (APD) pairs to effectively eliminate even harmonics of the local oscillator (LO) spurious signal. To reduce the odd harmonics of LO at the RF port, we employ a balanced configuration for LO. The fabricated chip shows 12$\pm$2dB of conversion loss and image-rejection ratio of about 20dB for down conversion at RF frequencies of 24-27.5GHz. As an up-conversion mode, the designed chip shows 12dB of conversion loss and image-rejection ratio of 20 ～ 25 dB at RF frequencies of 25 to 27GHz. The odd harmonics of the LO are measured below -37dBc.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2000.06e
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• pp.61-64
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• 2000

This paper describes a RF Down-Conversion Mixer for mobile communication systems. This circuit achieves low voltage operation and low power consumption by reducing stacked devices of conventional gilbert cell mixer. In order to reduce stacked devices, we use source-follower structure. The proposed RF Down-Conversion mixer operates up to 1.85GHz at 1.5V power supply with 0.25um CMOS technology and consumes 2.2mA.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.30-40
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• 2002

A 2.45GHz double-balanced modified Gilbert-type CMOS up-conversion mixer design is introduced, where the PMOS current-reuse bleeding technique is demonstrated to be efficient in improving conversion gain, linearity, and noise performance. An LO buffer is included in the mixer design to perform single-ended to differential conversion of the LO signal on chip. Simulation results of the design based on careful modeling of all active and passive components are examined to explain in detail about the characteristic improvement and degradation provided by the proposed design. Two kinds of chips were fabricated using a standard $0.35\mu\textrm$ CMOS process, one of which is the mixer chip without the LO buffer and the other is the one with it. The measured characteristics of the fabricated chips are quite excellent in terms of conversion gain, linearity, and noise, and they are in close match to the simulation results, which demonstrates the adequacy of the modeling approach based on the macro models for all the active and passive devices used in the design. Above all the benefits provided by the current-reuse bleeding technique, the improvement in noise performance seems most valuable.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.4 no.2 s.7
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• pp.202-211
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• 2000

Utilizing the circuit simulator SPICE, we designed a 1.9GHz CMOS up-conversion mixer and explained in detail the simulation procedures including device modeling for the circuit design. Since the measured characteristics of the chip fabricated using the $0.5{\mu}m$ standard CMOS process had shown a big deviation from the characteristics expected by the original simulations, we tried to figure out the proper reasons for the discrepancies. Simulations considering the discovered problems in the original simulations have shown the validity of the simulation method tried for the design. We have shown that the utilized standard CMOS process can be used for the implementation of the chip characteristics similar to those of the equivalent chip fabricated using the GaAs MESFET process.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2006.06a
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• pp.113-114
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• 2006

In this paper, dual-gate mixer has been designed and optimized to have variable conversion gain for WiBro and WLAN applications and to save power. With the LO power of 0dBm and RF power of -50dBm, the mixer shows 15dB conversion gain. When RF power increases from -50dBm to -20dBm, the conversion gain decreases to -2dB with bias change. The variable conversion gain can reduce the high dynamic range requirement of AGC burden at IF stage. Also, it can save the dc power dissipation of mixer up to 90%.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
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• v.27 no.9
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• pp.825-833
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• 2016

This paper introduces a direct-conversion CMOS RF transmitter for the IEEE 802.15.4 standard with a low-power high-gain up-conversion mixer designed in $0.18{\mu}m$ process. The designed RF DCT(Direct Conversion Transmitter) is composed of differential DAC(Digital to Analog Converter), passive low-pass filter, quadrature active mixer and drive amplifier. The most important characteristic in designing RF DCT is to satisfy the 2.4 GHz Zigbee standard in low power. The quadrature active mixer inside the proposed RF DCT provides enough high gain as well as sufficient linearity using a gain boosting technique. The measurement results for the proposed transmitter show very low power consumption of 7.8 mA, output power more than 0 dBm and ACPR (Adjacent Channel Power Ratio) of -30 dBc.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.147-155
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• 2002

This paper describes RF front-end transceiver chipset for the dual-mode operation of PCS-Korea and IMT-2000. The transceiver chipset has been implemented in a $0.25\mutextrm{m}$ single-poly five-metal CMOS technology. The receiver IC consists of a LNA and a down-mixer, and the transmitter IC integrates an up-mixer. Measurements show that the transceiver chipset covers the wide RF range from 1.8GHz for PCS-Korea to 2.1GHz for IMT-2000. The LNA has 2.8~3.1dB NF, 14~13dB gain and 5~4dBm IIP3. The down mixer has 15.5~16.0dB NF, 15~13dB power conversion gain and 2~0dBm IIP3. The up mixer has 0~2dB power conversion gain and 6~3dBm OIP3. With a single 3.0V power supply, the LNA, down-mixer, and up-mixer consume 6mA, 30mA, and 25mA, respectively.