A 60‐GHz double‐balanced mixer with negative resistance compensation for direct up‐conversion using 90‐nm CMOS technology

A 60‐GHz double‐balanced mixer for direct up‐conversion using standard 90‐nm CMOS technology is reported.The up‐conversion mixer comprises a double‐balanced Gilbert cell with negative resistance compensation for conversion gain (CG) enhancement, a Marchand balun for converting the single local oscillator (LO) input signal to differential signal, and another Marchand balun for converting the differential radio‐frequency (RF) output signal to single signal. The mixer consumes 15.1 mW and achieves intermediate frequency (IF)‐port input return loss of −36.7 dB at 0.1 GHz, LO‐port input return loss of −9.9∼−19.1 dB, and RF‐port input return loss of −12.4∼−31.3 dB for frequencies 57∼64 GHz. At IF of 0.1 GHz, the mixer achieves maximum CG of 4.5 dB at RF of 60 GHz. The corresponding 3‐dB bandwidth of RF is 6.2 GHz (57.1∼63.3 GHz). The measured LO–RF isolation is 57.5 dB at RF of 60 GHz. In addition, the measured output 1‐dB compression point and input third‐order intermodulation point are −11.8 and −5 dBm, respectively, at RF of 60 GHz. These results demonstrate the proposed up‐conversion mixer architecture is very promising for 60‐GHz direct‐conversion transceiver applications. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 55:536–543, 2013; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/mop.27352