Premium
A low local oscillator power K‐band mixer based on tunneling diodes
Author(s) -
Magrini Iacopo,
Cidronali Alessandro,
Manes Gianfranco
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
microwave and optical technology letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.304
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1098-2760
pISSN - 0895-2477
DOI - 10.1002/mop.24228
Subject(s) - local oscillator , diode , microwave , electrical engineering , monolithic microwave integrated circuit , dbm , optoelectronics , quantum tunnelling , intermodulation , tunnel diode , broadband , power (physics) , varicap , frequency mixer , engineering , materials science , physics , radio frequency , telecommunications , amplifier , capacitance , cmos , electrode , quantum mechanics
In this article, we will demonstrate a low local oscillator (LO) power K‐band mixer based on a tunneling diode technology. Due to its unique diode characteristics, no DC supply is needed, whereas an LO power as low as −2 dBm is required for nominal functionality. The energy‐efficient MMIC prototype integrates a pair of heterojunction interband tunnel diodes and a 90° coplanar broadband coupler. The prototype is optimized within the 19–26 GHz band, with an IF ranging from zero to 7 GHz. In addition, when compared with other mixers, it has the lowest LO power requirement with a conversion loss ranging from 6 to 10 dB, an input compression point of −3 dBm and an intercept 2nd and 3rd order intermodulation point of 22 and 12 dBm, respectively. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 51: 1140–1143, 2009; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.24228